The human gut is colonized by trillions of bacteria that support physiologic functions such as
food metabolism, energy harvesting, and regulation of the immune system. Perturbation of
the healthy gut microbiome has been suggested to play a role in the development of
inflammatory diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Environmental and genetic factors
can influence the composition of the microbiome; therefore, identification of microbial
communities linked with a disease phenotype has become the first step towards defining the …