International human microbiome coordination and support action
Humans are microbial, living in close functional interaction with their skin and mucosal microbiomes. Human-microbes interplay has proven essential for the maintenance of health and well-being and profiling of microbiomes will become an essential feature of the personalized preventive nutrition and medicine of tomorrow. Europe has gained a leading position in microbiome science and yet to fulfill societal expectations, an international consensus will be essential on key aspects. These include i) clinical trial design as well as analytical standards, ii) definitions of healthy microbiomes as a function of numerous factors, accounting for confounders, iii) means of demonstrating causality of altered host-microbes interactions in diseases and iv) processes for the development of clinically relevant, validated biomarkers. The International Human Microbiome Concertation and Support Action (IHMCSA) will tackle all necessary steps to open the perspective of managing nutrition and health of the microbial human. Involving key stakeholders representing the multiplicity of actors concerned, including citizens, IHMCSA will map existing material, delineate necessary steps and pathways for innovation and build consensus on priorities and means for the future of microbiome science and its translation. This will lead to recommendations, validated by an international Strategic Steering Committee as well as academies of medicine of the world, directed to the European Commission, international research programmes, funding and regulatory agencies and decision makers of health systems. To ensure sustainability of the proposed measures, IHMCSA will promote unified repositories for sharing standards, SOPs and data, and contribute to the structuration of the European Microbiome Centers Consortium with a role in gathering world microbiome networks of excellence. With IHMCSA, human-associated microbiomes will be recognized for their true value in contributing to secure the future of mankind.