If I was the head of a funding agency and I needed to decide on a research project to award funding to I would give funding to the project that looked into probiotics and their efficacy. The project would probably have something to do with being prescribed in conjunction with antibiotics, possibly probiotic vs placebo after completing a course of antibiotics. The study would collect various biological samples to try to ascertain the affect on the microbial populations and it would track other effects such as diarrhea, etc. I think what we would likely learn from this kind of project is that probiotics are beneficial to those with depleted microbial diversity, especially those who have just completed a full course of antibiotics. This would be important for the future of healthcare because it would alter how we treat different diseases.
