The Lower Airway Microbiome in Paediatric Health and Chronic Disease

The advent of next generation sequencing has rapidly challenged the paediatric respiratory physician’s understanding of lung microbiology and the role of the lung microbiome in host health and disease. In particular, the role of “microbial key players” in paediatric respiratory disease is yet to be fully explained. Accurate profiling of the lung microbiome in children is challenging since the ability to obtain lower airway samples coupled with processing “low-biomass specimens” are both technically difficult. Many studies provide conflicting results.