Wang and his colleagues are already attempting to track the composition of human gut microbiota back in time. But they have their sights set on even bigger collections of genetic data. “Our dream is to build a library” of reference genomes, Wang says. And, he notes, as soon as more definitive data about these gut genetics emerge, microbial-targeted therapeutics will likely be quick to follow.

This article was originally published with the title Genetics in the Gut.

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