Chasing Ghosts: Race, Racism, and the Future of Microbiome Research

Wolfe, Travis J. De; Arefin, Mohammed Rafi; Benezra, Amber; Gómez, María Rebolleda

doi:10.1128/msystems.00604-21

Cited by 46 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Most microbiome researchers are not trained in social or political science and lack the appropriate tools to assess and address these problems. The more intentional inclusion of social scientists in microbiome projects may help address not only country-level imbalances, but also remediate harmful conventions used to deal with other issues like race [ 50 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries

2022

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The importance of sampling from globally representative populations has been well established in human genomics. In human microbiome research, however, we lack a full understanding of the global distribution of sampling in research studies. This information is crucial to better understand global patterns of microbiome-associated diseases and to extend the health benefits of this research to all populations. Here, we analyze the country of origin of all 444,829 human microbiome samples that are available from the world’s 3 largest genomic data repositories, including the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). The samples are from 2,592 studies of 19 body sites, including 220,017 samples of the gut microbiome. We show that more than 71% of samples with a known origin come from Europe, the United States, and Canada, including 46.8% from the US alone, despite the country representing only 4.3% of the global population. We also find that central and southern Asia is the most underrepresented region: Countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh account for more than a quarter of the world population but make up only 1.8% of human microbiome samples. These results demonstrate a critical need to ensure more global representation of participants in microbiome studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries

2022

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“…Thus, interventions to change dietary choices toward nutrients that reduce the deleterious effects of BAs in the colon may serve as promising solutions to reduce CRC ( 116 ). However, prescribing a BA-modulating diet in an effort to reduce CRC disparities does not go far enough, as researchers must take into account the social and environmental context that drives these mechanisms ( 117 , 118 ). However, previous work examining microbial mechanisms of CRC related to diet lack population heterogeneity, limiting questions regarding structural drivers of disease ( 119 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bile Acids, Gut Microbes, and the Neighborhood Food Environment—a Potential Driver of Colorectal Cancer Health Disparities

et al. 2022

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“…Correspondingly and equally urgently, microbiome science itself needs an anti‐racist intervention, a task I take up elsewhere (Benezra 2020; De Wolfe et al. 2021).…”

Section: Right In the Gutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…My thinking about microbial kin evokes Zoe Todd's (Métis/otipemisiw) "kin study" (Todd and Kanngieser 2020), which relies on Indigenous concepts of kincentric ecologies; reciprocal accountability to more-than-human relations. Correspondingly and equally urgently, microbiome science itself needs an anti-racist intervention, a task I take up elsewhere (Benezra 2020;De Wolfe et al 2021).…”

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confidence: 99%

Microbial Kin: Relations of Environment and Time

Benezra

2021

Med Anthropol Q

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Microbiome science considers human beings supraorganisms: single ecological units made up of symbiotic assemblages of human cells and microorganisms. Microbes co‐evolve with humans, and microbial populations in human bodies are determined by environments/exposures including family, food and place, health care, race and gender inequities, and toxic pollution. Microbiomes are transgenerational links, disarrangements between different bodies and the outside world. This article asserts that microbes are kin—kin that are made of and making environments, across generations. Post/nonhuman theories have debated the agency, sociality, and ontologies of microbes and things like microbes, all the while appropriating and eliding Indigenous scholarship that directly address the nonhuman world. Microbial kin evokes Indigenous formulations that necessitate reciprocal, ethical accountability to more‐than‐human relations. This article uses fieldwork in a transnational microbiome malnutrition project in Bangladesh to explore what develops for both the biological and social sciences if we call human–microbe relations kinships, and call microbes our kin.

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Chasing Ghosts: Race, Racism, and the Future of Microbiome Research

Cited by 46 publications

References 66 publications

Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries

Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries

Bile Acids, Gut Microbes, and the Neighborhood Food Environment—a Potential Driver of Colorectal Cancer Health Disparities

Microbial Kin: Relations of Environment and Time

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