A high‑profile Science report linking the gut microbiome to PD‑1 immunotherapy outcomes received recognition with a Bial Award, while independent work introduced an ecological network balance index (ENBI) to characterize community‑level gut dynamics as a noninvasive biomarker. The Science study provided mechanistic evidence that specific microbial features can modulate epithelial tumor response to PD‑1 blockade. The ENBI work—from teams at Rutgers, Universidad de Granada and Princeton—shifts focus from single taxa to network interactions and offers a metric to distinguish healthy versus diseased microbiome ecological states. Together, the studies advance both mechanistic understanding and practical tools for microbiome‑guided oncology strategies.