The Invisible Body of the Human Microbiome

“In humans, metagenomic studies have revealed that less than 50% of the cells that make up our body are human cells; the rest are of bacterial origin. These results underline the fact that the human genome is just one of the many genomes that affect Homo sapiens. Human biology can therefore no longer focus solely on human cells. [...] The complex relationships between the human species and the microbes, viruses and bacteria that surround us, contribute to the coconstruction of our identity.”

François-Joseph Lapointe, Department of Biological Sciences, Université de Montréal

“The Invisible Body of the Human Microbiome”, Eve 2050, 2018