The universal dynamics of the human microbiome

In this talk I will address a simple but fundamental question: are the microbial ecosystems in different people governed by the same host-independent (i.e. “universal”) ecological dynamics? Answering this question determines the feasibility of general therapies and control strategies for the human microbiome. I will introduce our novel methodology that distinguishes between two scenarios: host-independent and host-specific underlying dynamics. This methodology has been applied to study different body sites across healthy subjects. We also analyzed the gut microbial dynamics of subjects with recurrent Clostridium difficile infection and the same set of subjects after fecal microbiota transplantation. The results can fundamentally improve our understanding of forces and processes shaping human microbial ecosystems, paving the way to design general microbiome-based therapies.