Fig. 3.

Introducing microbiomes into clinical practice for precision medicine. The profiles of individual patient microbiomes are analyzed with meta-omics, which allow for patients to be classified into sub-groups, i.e., responders vs. non-responders to treatments (a). The in vivo response of an individual’s microbiome to drugs can also be predicted with ex vivo microbiome assays, allowing the selection of the best drugs or adjuvant treatments for different patients (b). Finally, health and disease management could be carried out by precisely manipulating of the microbiome through supplementing commensal bacteria, engineered bacteria, microbiome-targeted drugs or bacteriophages (c)