The microbiome as part of the tumor ecosystem and its effects on precision immue therapy

The presence of bacteria in solid human tumors has been documented for over 100 years. Still, it is only in recent years that a more thorough characterization of this low biomass microbiome has been pursued. We have been characterizing the presence of bacteria across many human tumor types and starting to dissect their functions and clinical effects, including on the response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Recently we have also extended our efforts to characterizing the presence of fungi. We found that fungi are commonly present in human tumors and that specific fungi are correlated to the presence of specific tumor bacteria or to the tumor immune landscape. In this seminar, I will give a short overview of what we know today about the multi-kingdom tumor microbiome landscape and its potential effect on precision immune therapy.