Microbiome measurement: Possibilities and pitfalls

Microbiome research is an emerging field in medical sciences. Several studies have made headways in understanding the influence of microbes on our health and disease states. Further progress in mapping microbiome populations across different body sites and understanding the underlying mechanisms of microbiome-host interactions depends critically on study design, collection protocols, analytical genetic techniques, and reference databases. In particular, a shift has appeared going from small sample collections to large-scale population studies (with extensive phenotypic information including disease status) which calls for some adaptions. In this review we will focus on gut microbiome profiling using the 16S ribosomal RNA approach in the setting of large-scale population studies, and discuss some novel developments.