So, humans co-exist and continuously interact with the gut microbiota, which consists of over one trillion bacteria. If you think about your body as a super-organism composed of both human cells and bacterial cells, your gut microbiota makes up 90% of the total cells in this super-organism! The gut microbiota consists of heroes and villains. Gut heroes are the beneficial microorganisms that have critical roles in the human intestines: they help with digestion, provide essential nutrients, help to the immune system, and fight off food poisoning and sickness. These heroes are in an on-going truce with villains who are also known as pathobionts, which is any potentially disease-causing microorganism that lives without causing any disease. The interaction between the beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms in the gut is extremely critical to human health and the balance is quite fragile. Unfortunately, under certain conditions when the truce is violated, pathobionts can harm us and cause sickness.

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