Multidisciplinary Delphi consensus statement on minimal standards for clinical metadata and end points in microbiome studies.

A two-round Delphi consensus within the Horizon Europe Human Microbiome Action consortium produced 15 recommendations to harmonize gut microbiome clinical study metadata, sampling, and endpoints.

• Why it matters: Lack of harmonization in microbiome-based clinical studies limits coherence in metadata, reference materials, sampling, analysis protocols, and unified clinical endpoints.
• What they did: The Delphi survey involved 72 experts in round one and 61 in round two, with an 85% participation rate, to standardize metadata collection, data generation/sharing, and standard operating procedures.
• The result: The resulting 15 recommendations, mainly for gut microbiome studies and gastrointestinal tract and gut-organ axis diseases, may be adopted by the broader community to improve consistency in future microbiome clinical research.

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