Microbiome ethics, guiding principles for microbiome research, use and knowledge management

Abstract

The overarching biological impact of microbiomes on their hosts, and more generally their environment, reflects the co-evolution of a mutualistic symbiosis, generating fitness for both. Knowledge of microbiomes, their systemic role, interactions, and impact grows exponentially. When a research field of importance for planetary health evolves so rapidly, it is essential to consider it from an ethical holistic perspective. However, to date, the topic of microbiome ethics has received relatively little attention considering its importance. Here, ethical analysis of microbiome research, innovation, use, and potential impact is structured around the four cornerstone principles of ethics: Do Good; Don’t Harm; Respect; Act Justly. This simple, but not simplistic approach allows ethical issues to be communicative and operational. The essence of the paper is captured in a set of eleven microbiome ethics recommendations, e.g., proposing gut microbiome status as common global heritage, similar to the internationally agreed status of major food crops.

Microbiome Dynamics: A Paradigm Shift in Combatting Infectious Diseases

“…Equally important is ensuring effective communication and knowledge dissemination across diverse stakeholders in microbiome research and infectious diseases to bridge the gap between researchers, clinicians, policymakers, industry partners, and the public [397]. This requires effective communication strategies, knowledge translation efforts, and public engagement initiatives that promote understanding and awareness of microbiome research findings and their implications for infectious diseases.…”

Touching the (almost) untouchable: a minimally-invasive workflow for microbiological and biomolecular analyses of cultural heritage objects

“…Cultural heritage objects are often studied with an interdisciplinary approach covering history, archaeology, forensics, chemistry, materials science, molecular biology and microbiology (Mazzocchi, 2019;Piñar and Sterflinger, 2021;Flocco, 2021). In particular, the investigation of the biological materials composing or bound to heritage objects, such as proteins and the microbiome, has identified novel biomolecular historical markers (Teasdale et al, 2015;Rosenbloom, 2021) and re-kindled questions on the philosophy and ethics realm (Inkpen, 2019;Laplane et al, 2019.;Pálsidottir et al, 2019;Lange et al, 2022).…”

Touching the (almost) untouchable: a minimally invasive workflow for microbiological and biomolecular analyses of cultural heritage objects

“…Cultural heritage objects are often studied with an interdisciplinary approach covering history, archeology, forensics, chemistry, materials science, molecular biology, and microbiology (Mazzocchi, 2019;Flocco, 2021;Piñar and Sterflinger, 2021). In particular, the investigation of the biological materials composing or bound to heritage objects, such as proteins and the microbiome, has identified novel biomolecular historical markers (Teasdale et al, 2015;Rosenbloom, 2021) and re-kindled questions on the philosophy and ethics realm (Inkpen, 2019;Laplane et al, 2019;Pálsdóttir et al, 2019;Lange et al, 2022).…”