The microbiome may be the key to dealing with allergic diseases such as asthma and eczema. Dr. Susan Lynch of the University of California, San Francisco, was part of a multi-institutional study that found that infants who had a diverse mix of bacteria in the gut during the first six months of life, were at less risk of developing allergies and asthma later in life. At a recent conference, Lynch said their findings could lead to new microbiome-related treatments in humans.

"And it may be a combination of microbial supplementation with appropriate dietary interventions, that really re-engineers the microbial communities in the gastrointestinal tract to produce a broad spectrum of anti-inflammatory metabolic products that influence the tone of host-immune response."

Lynch added that the next step for researchers is to figure out how to recognize microbiome abnormalities, who to test for them, and then how to treat them.