The Microbiome Master Key: Harness Your Microbes to Unlock Whole-Body Health and Lifelong Vitality

by B. Brett Finlay, Jessica M. Finlay

The key to promoting longer, healthier lives lies within the teeming world of microbes inside and all around us.


Hand sanitizer. Social distancing. Antibiotics. Even before the COVID pandemic, fending off germs has long been considered one of the cornerstones of good health. But what if better health actually went hand-in-hand with embracing the invisible microbes living on, in, and all around us?


Our bodies are teeming with microbes. They impact everything from sleep, cognition, mood, heart health, and energy to likelihood of developing dementia, diabetes and some cancers. As groundbreaking new studies are showing, taking care of the microbiome—inside and out—can help improve day-to-day health and even help prevent or reverse some of the most common age-related diseases.

Among scores of insights and highly practical tips,


• How diet, hygiene, exercise habits, stress, environment, and even social life all influence the microbiome and, in turn, your health.

• How microbe-friendly diets have been clinically shown to delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease and lower the risk of developing dementia.


• Why women should be especially wary of being over-prescribed antibiotics.


• How to pick a good probiotic—and why many of the brands you see influencers promoting on social media simply don't work.


• How COVID underscored the need for healthy exposure to microbes, what that means in reality, and how to re-embrace microbes in the wake of the pandemic.


In this eye-opening and evidence-based book, father-daughter team Dr. Brett Finlay (a microbiologist) and Dr. Jessica Finlay (a specialist in aging) break down what the latest research says about how the microbiome affects not just gut health, but all aspects of physical and mental well-being—and what readers can do about it.

349 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2025

About the author

Dr. B. Brett Finlay is a Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, and the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia. He obtained a B.Sc. (Honors) in Biochemistry at the University of Alberta, where he also did his Ph.D. (1986) in Biochemistry under Dr. William Paranchych, studying F-like plasmid conjugation. His post-doctoral studies were performed with Dr. Stanley Falkow at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he studied Salmonella invasion into host cells. In 1989, he joined UBC as an Assistant Professor in the Biotechnology Laboratory. Dr. Finlay’s research interests are focussed on host-microbe interactions, at the molecular level. By combining cell biology with microbiology, he has been at the forefront of the field called Cellular Microbiology, making several fundamental discoveries in this area, and publishing over 460 papers (h index=110). His laboratory studies several pathogenic bacteria, including Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli, and more recently microbiota. He is well recognized internationally for his work, and has won several prestigious awards including the E.W.R. Steacie Prize, the CSM Fisher Scientific Award, CSM Roche Award, a MRC Scientist, five Howard Hughes International Research Scholar Awards, a CIHR Distinguished Investigator, BC Biotech Innovation Award, the Michael Smith Health Research Prize, the IDSA Squibb award, the Jacob Biely Prize, the prestigious Canadian Killam Health Sciences Prize, the Flavelle Medal of the Royal Society, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Prix Galien, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, is a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, Chair d'État, Collège de France and is the UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and Order of British Columbia. He is a cofounder of Inimex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Microbiome Insights, scientific cofounder of Vedanta Pharmaceuticals and CommenSe, Director of the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative, and Founding Director and Senior Fellow of CIFAR’s Microbes and Humans. He also serves on several editorial and advisory boards, and is a strong supporter of communicating science to the public.