The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is calling for unified standards to harmonize microbiome research, after revealing major inconsistencies in the results when labs around the world analyzed identical reference samples of gut bacteria.

South Korean researchers led by Lee In-suk of Yonsei University have reported the most complete oral microbiome catalog to date, with more than 72,000 genomes. Detailed in Cell Host & Microbe on Nov. 12, 2025, the database is expected to serve as a universal platform for academia and enable “precision microbiome medicine” for the industry, Lee told BioWorld.

South Korean researchers led by Lee In-suk of Yonsei University have reported the most complete oral microbiome catalog to date, with more than 72,000 genomes. Detailed in Cell Host & Microbe on Nov. 12, 2025, the database is expected to serve as a universal platform for academia and enable “precision microbiome medicine” for the industry, Lee told BioWorld.

Immunity is not a function most people particularly associate with the liver. But because of its connection to the gut, the liver is exposed to bacterial metabolites as few other organs are. And when either the liver or the gut is not functioning well, it can adversely affect immunity as well. The liver is connected to the gut via both the biliary system and the portal vein. Those two conduits allow metabolites from the gut microbiome to influence what’s going on in the liver. Both liver and gut damage can affect this communication for the worse. And surprisingly, one of the consequences is immune dysfunction.

Investigators at Pennsylvania State University have described a novel approach to combat Clostridioides difficile infection using a synthetic microbiome therapy, which offers an alternative to antibiotics and fecal microbiota transplant (FMT). C. diff, the main cause of antibiotic-related diarrhea, is responsible for an estimated half a million infections annually in the U.S.

Many studies have linked the presence of specific bacteria to various diseases. But a general overgrowth of gut bacteria can be a symptom of different conditions, including colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. A study counting gut microbiome proposes that microbial load, rather than the disease, could explain the presence of certain pathogens.

The gastrointestinal tract could be key to developing new drugs to combat resistant bacteria. Computational analysis of the human microbiome has revealed a new class of peptides with antimicrobial potential that, once synthesized, inhibited the growth of several microorganisms in vitro and in vivo.

Researchers in Japan have discovered that a phage-derived enzyme called endolysin, which targets highly resistant biofilm-forming bacteria, could help restore the gut microbiota to mitigate acute graft-vs.-host disease. Acute graft-vs.-host disease (aGVHD) is a common complication for patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). Recent studies have highlighted the significant role of the microbiome in aGVHD, with dysbiosis contributing to its pathogenesis.

Researchers have identified enzymes in gut microorganisms that could cleave A and B antigens from red blood, transmuting them to O negative cells. This is “a decisive step forward” in the quest to develop a universal donor blood that can be administered to people of any blood group without eliciting a harmful immune response, according to Maher Abou Hachem of the Technical University of Denmark, who co-led the research.