Competing interests
The Global Grants for Gut Health (GGGH) Colloquium comprises researchers who have been selected as GGGH awardees in the previous annual award cycles. The Colloquium meets annually to have a panel discussion on selected topics. A.S., who is a senior editor at Nature Microbiology, was the moderator for the panel discussion on 21 November 2025 and suggested the discussion topic. Following the panel discussion, A.S. commissioned and edited this Feature. The sponsors of the GGGH award, Yakult, had no involvement in either topic selection for the discussion, or the commissioning and editing of this Feature.