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The book provides an overview on how the gut microbiome contributes to human health. The readers will get profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems. The tools of choice to study the ecology of these highly-specialized microorganism communities such as high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic mining will be presented. In addition the most common diseases associated to the composition of the gut flora are discussed in detail. The book will address researchers, clinicians and advanced students working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology.

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Chapter 1: Introduction (Haller) Chapter 2: Composition and function of the gut microbiome (Blaut; Postdam/+) Chapter 3: Clinical implementation of high-throughtput sequencing (Gessner, Regensburg/+) Chapter 4: Metagenomes (Florian Fricke, Hohenheim/+) Chapter 5: Gut microbial ecology of the human populations (John Baines, Kiel) Chapter 6: Microbiome and diet (Danilo Ercolino, Naples, Italy) Chapter 7-11: Microbiome and gut immu nity - Innate (Jan Wehkamp, Julia Frick, Tübingen) - Epithelium (Christoph Becker/Claudia Günther, Erlangen) - T cells (Jochen Hühn, Braunschweig/+) - B cells (Oliver Pabst, Aachen/+) - Early Life (Mathias Hornef, Aachen/+) Chapter 12-19: Microbiome and Disorders - Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (Haller/+) - Allergy (Biedermann, München/+) - Graft-versus-Host Disease (Holler, Regensburg/+) - Infection (Bärbel Stecher; München/+) - Cancer (Sebastian Zeissig; Dresden/+) - Obesity (Thomas Clavel, München/+) - Liver (Ina Bergheim, Wien/+) - Neurological disorders (Christoph Thöringer, München/+) Chapter 20: Fecal Transplantations and clinical application (Brita Siegmund, Berlin/+) Netherlands/+) Chapter 21: Gnotobiology (Andre Bleich, Hannover/+)

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Dr. Dirk Haller is Full Professor for Nutrition and Immunology and Director of the Institute for Food & Health at the Technical University of Munich. He received his academic training at the University of Hohenheim, graduating in Nutrition Science and Food Technology, and completed his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology. Following periods of post-doctorial research in Switzerland (Nestlé Research Center) and USA (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), he received carreer and science awards from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Society of Medical Microbiology (DGHM). He pioneered the concept of microbe-host interactions and substantially contributed to the understanding of chronic inflammatory disorders in the gut.

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