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Dr Eran Elinav said it was wrong to expect an off-the-shelf probiotic to work for everyone.
He says that in the future probiotics will need to be tailored to the needs of individual patients.
He told the BBC: "And in that sense just buying probiotics at the supermarket without any tailoring, without any adjustment to the host, at least in part of the population, is quite useless."
The research group also looked at the impact of probiotics after a course of antibiotics, which wipe out both good and bad bacteria.
Their trial on 46 people, also in the journal Cell, showed it led to delays in the normal healthy bacteria re-establishing themselves.
Dr Elinav added: "Contrary to the current dogma that probiotics are harmless and benefit everyone, these results reveal a new potential adverse side effect of probiotic use with antibiotics that might even bring long-term consequences."
I do like James Hamblin's review of the article:
Translation: for rebuilding the gut microbiome after taking antibiotics, those expensive probiotics at places like Whole Foods are less effective than ingesting one’s own feces. (pre-antibiotic stockpiles of it, administered in a medical setting, not a DIY project).
https://twitter.com/jameshamblin/status/1037749875948048384