Multiple factors contribute to establishment of skin microbial communities in early life, with perturbations in these ecosystems impacting health. This review provides an update on methods used to profile the skin microbiome and how this is helping enhance our understanding of infant skin microbial communities, including factors that influence composition and disease risk. We also provide insights into new interventional studies and treatments in this area. However, it is apparent that there are still research bottlenecks that include overreliance on high-income countries for skin microbiome ‘surveys’, many studies still focus solely on the bacterial microbiota, and also technical issues related to the lower microbial biomass of skin sites. These points link to pertinent open-research questions, such as how the whole infant skin microbiome interacts and how microbial-associated functions shape infant skin health and immunity.

多种因素有助于生命早期皮肤微生物群落的建立，这些生态系统的扰动会影响健康。这篇综述提供了用于分析皮肤微生物组的方法的最新信息，以及这如何帮助增强我们对婴儿皮肤微生物群落的了解，包括影响成分和疾病风险的因素。我们还提供对该领域新的介入研究和治疗的见解。然而，显然仍然存在研究瓶颈，包括过度依赖高收入国家进行皮肤微生物组“调查”，许多研究仍然只关注细菌微生物群，以及与皮肤部位微生物生物量较低相关的技术问题。这些要点与相关的开放研究问题相关，例如整个婴儿皮肤微生物组如何相互作用以及微生物相关功能如何塑造婴儿皮肤健康和免疫力。