Microbiome-Based Diagnostics: Current Progress

Wotsomu Evasi

Clinical Pharmacology and Antimicrobial resistance Kampala International University Uganda

Email: evasi.wotsomu@stdwc.kiu.ac.ug

ABSTRACT

Microbiome-based diagnostics is an emerging field that leverages microbial communities and their functional profiles to support disease detection, monitoring, and personalized healthcare. Advances in next-generation sequencing, metabolomics, and proteomics have enabled high-resolution characterization of the microbiome, uncovering its associations with conditions such as cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, obesity, and mental health disorders. Diagnostic applications span infectious disease detection, chronic disease management, and individualized interventions, with platforms such as MYcrobiota demonstrating promise for culture-free profiling of low-biomass clinical samples. Metabolomic and proteomic approaches further reveal the metabolic and functional roles of microbial communities, offering novel biomarkers for clinical use. The gut microbiome, in particular, has emerged as a critical determinant of metabolic, immune, and neurological health, with evidence supporting its role in shaping responses to therapy and influencing host physiology. Despite these advances, significant challenges remain, including inter-individual variability, lack of standardized methodologies, and limited clinical validation. Ethical concerns surrounding privacy and data ownership also require attention. Integration of multi-omics, artificial intelligence, and standardized clinical pipelines is expected to advance the field toward routine application. Microbiome-based diagnostics thus holds transformative potential for precision medicine, offering new opportunities for early detection, risk assessment, and personalized therapeutic strategies.

Keywords: Microbiome-based diagnostics, Next-generation sequencing (NGS), Metabolomics and proteomics, Gut microbiota and Precision medicine

CITE AS: Wotsomu Evasi (2025). Microbiome-Based Diagnostics: Current Progress. IDOSR JOURNAL OF APPLIED SCIENCES 10(3):81-92. https://doi.org/10.59298/IDOSRJAS/2025/103.8192