The microbiome, comprised of the microbiota and its collective genomes called the metagenome, is an integral part of our body. Members of the microbiota include bacteria, archaea, microbial eukaryotes (protists, fungi, etc.), and respective viruses. Recent studies reveal that a myriad of members, mutualistic, commensal, or pathogenic, of the human microbiome play pivotal roles in health and disease by producing diverse macromolecules and metabolites. Not only are they important in nutrient digestion and gastrointestinal health, but they are also intimately and intricately involved in metabolism, immunity, development, circulation, and behavior, and modulate them in many ways. Some of the diseases affected by the microbiome include metabolic diseases (obesity, type 2 diabetes), immune-related diseases (inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis), gastrointestinal diseases, liver diseases, cardiovascular disease, various cancers, and neural/mental disorders. In the session, recent progress and achievements in human microbiome research and the consequent discovery of pharmabiotics candidates that are derived from the human microbiome and have pharmacological efficacy for maintaining health or treating diseases will be reported and prospects for further commercial development of probiotics and pharmabiotics, natural or genetically modified, will be discussed.
Organizer: Jihyun F. Kim, Ph.D. (Yonsei University, Korea)
Chair: Won-jae Lee, Ph.D. (Seoul National University, Korea)