Welcome to Episode 11 of the Public Health Report. Today’s episode is about global disparities in human microbiome research. Samples of microbes living on and inside humans primarily come from Europe and North America, and developing countries such as those in Central and South Asia are unfortunately underrepresented. This is problematic because microbiomes are influenced by factors like genetics and lifestyle, which differ globally. We need more diversity in microbiome samples so that any treatments we develop from these samples are applicable to people everywhere, not just those from first-world nations.

Check out our website www.publichealthpodcasters.com for more episodes! You can also learn more about the Public Health Podcasting and Media Network there. This episode was hosted by Diane Bao.

Source: Abdill, R. J., Adamowicz, E. M., & Blekhman, R. (2022). Public human microbiome data are dominated by highly developed countries. PLOS Biology, 20(2), e3001536. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001536.

Science Daily also describes this article at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220215140752.htm.