The microbiome plays many roles in health and disease, some known and likely many yet unknown. From modulating human immunity, metabolism and physiology, to influencing susceptibility to infectious and non-infectious diseases and response to treatments, the importance of the microbiome is now widely recognized, although not completely understood. Nearly two decades of research have laid the groundwork for this field, and we are now at a point where sophisticated tools and cutting-edge approaches in microbiome research are enabling us to build models, understand mechanisms and ultimately impact medicine.

This meeting will address important gaps in our knowledge as it relates to:

1. understanding the microbiome in an ecological context in niches around the body,
2. dissecting the mechanisms by which microbes and microbial products modulate microbial and host biology,
3. important new clinical breakthroughs in microbiome science.

This conference on the Human Microbiome will explore the cutting edge of unpublished health-related microbiome research, ranging from mechanism to therapeutics. Trainees will be exposed to a broad range of microbiome science perspectives, and will benefit from networking opportunities with field leaders.  Ultimately this meeting aims to drive collaborations that will advance the field and accelerate translational insights and applications.

Additionally, this meeting will be held jointly with the Keystone Symposium on “Microbiome Metabolism and Metabolites,” to enable cross-disciplinary insights and collaborations towards mechanistic and biochemical insights into microbiome-mediated impacts on health.