In 2016, researcher Thomas Gensollen and colleagues published “How Colonization by Microbiota in Early Life Shapes the Immune System,” hereafter, “Microbiota Shapes the Immune System,” in Science. The article reviews [what is known about?] how microbial colonization impacts immune development in newborns. Because the immune system protects the body from infection, an individual’s microbiome composition also affects susceptibility to certain diseases. Specifically, the authors discuss microbe colonization during early life, a time they refer to as the window of opportunity for future disease susceptibility. That window of opportunity is a period where environmental influences more easily shape the infant’s immune cells and their functions. In turn, the authors present that window as an optimal time for treating disorders associated with the microbiome and the immune system. “Microbiota Shapes the Immune System” reviewed data from dozens of articles to show that there is a narrow window during infancy where microbiome interactions directly or indirectly influence immune development, a potential area for interventional methods to target immune development.

In 2021, Brooke Wilson and colleagues published “Oral Administration of Maternal Vaginal Microbes at Birth to Restore Gut Microbiome Development in Infants Born by Caesarean Section: A Pilot Randomised Placebo-controlled Trial,” hereafter “Oral Administration,” in eBiomedicine. Previous researchers had established that neonates born via caesarean section, or c-section, the surgical delivery of an infant through an incision made in the mother’s abdomen, have different gut microbiomes from neonates delivered vaginally. They further hypothesized that such a difference may be because infants born by c-section do not receive exposure to their mother’s vaginal microbiome during delivery. Thus, Wilson and colleagues investigate whether oral vaginal seeding, or the process of transferring vaginal microbes to a newborn’s mouth, can restore the gut microbiome of newborns born by c-section. “Oral Administration” was one of the first articles to demonstrate that oral vaginal seeding is ineffective in altering the gut microbiome of newborns delivered by c-section and prompted other researchers to explore alternative research routes to enhancing the gut microbiome of newborns born by c-section.