Inlay

Wildling lover at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany | Head of the Department of Microbiome Research, University Hospital Erlangen https://www.mikrobiomik.uk-erlangen.de/en/

Reposts appreciated! What if standard lab mice miss the real microbial game? Honored to be featured on the May cover @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social: „The microbial companion.“ Our paper “Game of Microbes: A Wildling’s Guide” is out now: dlvr.it/TRl1Zs Thread below with more @cellpress.bsky.social

Calling #GameofThrones fans! The May '26 issue of Trends in Microbiology is live now with the cover image depicting the intimate co-evolution between the host and the microbiota. Read the full issue here: www.cell.com/issue/S0966-...

Laboratory mice housed under specific pathogen–free (SPF) conditions are the standard model in biomedical research. However, experiments with a particular inbred mouse strain performed in different la...

Here, the authors apply a standardized system, called TXsystem, to transplant wild mouse gut microbiota into SPF mice, developing “TXwildlings” mice that stably retain natural microbiota and human-lik...

Laboratory mice housed under specific pathogen-free conditions are the standard model in biomedical research. However, frequent germ-free rederivation and barrier housing restrict microbial exposure and interactions with commensal and pathogenic microorganisms. In contrast, wild mice encounter diverse microbial environments, undergo natural selection, and rely on robust immune responses for survival. Consequently, lifelong microbial exposure is a key driver in shaping mammalian physiology, establishing the need for naturalizing rodent models in biomedical research. By defining the concepts of ‘microbial self’ and ‘microbial nonself’, we propose a four-step guide for establishing a multigenerational wildling colony that accounts for both microbial self and microbial nonself. This reestablishes the common biological link shared by all free-living mammals, thereby improving the comparability between murine and human studies.