Each one of us carries trillions and trillions of 'bugs', as Jeroen Raes (Group Leader at Bioinformatics and (eco-)systems biology lab, VIB/VUB/KU Leuven) likes to call them —micro-organisms that live in our bodies and make up the so-called microbiome, or gut flora. While these microbes have been linked to different diseases, information about which factors in a healthy individual’s diet and lifestyle affect the microbiome has remained elusive. What is the potential of the microbiota as a diagnostic solution at this time? Can we manipulate it to prevent diseases and use it to influence drug sensitivity? What are the challenges in the microbiomics field? Will we be able to develop targeted, even personalized probiotics? Is there a hype surrounding microbiomics that the public, scientists and communicators must take into account when evaluating its recent advances and future possibilities?