May 20, 2021 11:53am Scientists at Harvard Medical School found links between the gut microbiome's genetic signatures and diseases such as coronary artery disease, inflammatory bowel disease and liver cirrhosis. (peterschreiber.media/Getty Images) Recent research suggests that microorganisms living in the human gut may play a role in diseases ranging from obesity to cancer. A team at Harvard Medical School has gone one step further, linking the microbiome’s genetic features to multiple diseases. By using a variety of statistical models and machine learning, the Harvard scientists identified what they call “microbiome architectures” behind human diseases. They linked several sets of genetic features of the microbiome to many conditions, including coronary artery disease, inflammatory bowel disease, liver cirrhosis, Type 2 diabetes and others, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.