Background and Objectives

Background and Objectives

1. A wide range of substances in the diet come into contact with the intestinal microbial community (the gut microbiome) and therefore have the potential to influence this community and sometimes, in turn, host health. The implications that this has for the assessment of the risks to human health of chemicals and other components of the diet and how this can be determined are currently under debate; as yet there is no clear consensus.

2. In this workshop we set out to explore the complex current state of the science of the microbiome pathophysiology and the possible impact of xenobiotics on host-microbiome interactions and vice versa, including possible mechanisms and health implications, with a particular emphasis on the gut microbiome and dietary exposure.

3. The workshop output will hopefully enable new insights, provide a review of the science, initiate discussions to determine where the data gaps are in research, what effects are of concern, and how might xenobiotics be evaluated practically for such effects in the future.