What was the objective of the tool developed by researchers at the Mayo Clinic?
To assign a numerical score reflecting the overall state of the microbial community.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic focused on quantifying the overall health of the gut microbiome, moving beyond merely cataloging inhabitants. Their analytical tool was specifically engineered to measure the abundance levels of bacteria recognized as either beneficial or harmful within an individual's digestive tract. The culmination of this quantification process was the creation of a single numerical score. This score served as a metric intended to reflect the holistic state or general condition of the entire microbial community present in the gut, offering a simplified representation of complex data.

#Videos
Understanding Gut Microbiome Science with Jeffrey Gordon, MD