Although traditionally thought to be sterile, accumulating evidence now supports the concept
that our airways harbor a microbiome. Thus far, studies have focused upon characterizing
the bacterial constituents of the airway microbiome in both healthy and diseased lungs, but
what perhaps provides the greatest impetus for the exploration of the airway microbiome is
that different bacterial phyla appear to dominate diseased as compared with healthy lungs.
As yet, there is very limited evidence supporting a functional role for the airway microbiome …