Cutting-edge approaches to understand how gut microbes promote our health

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Bifidobacteria has been highlighted as a protective agent against a number of health conditions, ranging from pathogen infection to Crohn's disease and asthma. Evidence suggests that Bifidobacteria can directly affect host processes in the gut. One such process is autophagy, a cellular degradation mechanism, known to be important for intestinal homeostasis (Nobel Prize 2016). However, we do not know the details how exactly Bifidobacteria can modulate autophagy. Studying these cross-kingdom connections will help us to understand the mechanims behind gut health benefits of commensal bacteria. To explore such a complex interplay novel approaches should be used, like systems biology, which has revolutionized our way of thinking about biological systems and allowed the identification of essential molecules at the systems-level.