Ecology meets human health: unraveling the complex dynamics of human microbiota to direct therapeutic intervention

In our NWO-Complexity project "Ecology meets human health" we investigated how an ecological view of human microbiota aids our understanding of these miniature ecosystems in relation to health and disease. We show how microbial interactions can be detected by patterns of interrelationship between bacteria. In applications to intestinal diseases, we show how new models and analytical techniques help us characterize disease and describe and predict individual response to treatment. In the future, these insights may lead to the development of practical microbiome-based interventions.