Last week I attended an incredibly inspiring meeting of Australian early and mid-career researchers working in the microbiome field, an initiative of the Australian Academy of Sciences. Many of the studies presented (like those described below) were very much in development, so had little or no data available. However this field is moving quickly, and we will see results in the coming months and years. The poster I presented outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities a

Who wins in the contest between our neanderthal stress-response system and the demands and joys of our modern lives? Spoiler alert — neither. It’s a zero sum game. Stress is one of the biggest psychological triggers of physiological changes in the body. It is a key intersection of mind, body and microbiome — the perfect example of the interconnectedness of it all. It worries me a little, stresses me out even, how ubiquitous stress seems to be, and how we seem to have accepted