By Yuki Sugimoto, Francine R. Camacho, Shuo Wang, Pranatchareeya Chankhamjon, Arman Odabas, Abhishek Biswas, Philip D. Jeffrey, Mohamed S. Donia

The human microbiome is a vast and complex ecosystem, teeming with microbial life that influences our health in profound ways. While correlations between microbiome composition and disease have been widely studied, the molecular mechanisms behind these relationships remain elusive. One promising avenue for exploration lies in the small molecules produced by these microbes—compounds that mediate interactions both among microbes and between microbes and their human hosts.

In this groundbreaking study, the authors introduce MetaBGC, a hybrid computational and synthetic biology strategy designed to uncover biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) directly from metagenomic sequencing data. These clusters encode the machinery for producing bioactive small molecules, including antibiotics and other therapeutics.

Read the paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax9176