Photo Credit: OpenBiome team members conducting research with scientists from The Universidad Nacional Litoral de Sante Fe (UNL).

Expanding Understanding of the Human Microbiome

As a member of the Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) Consortium, OpenBiome supports efforts to conserve, study, and share underrepresented human microbiome diversity.

The Global Microbiome: A New Frontier in Human Health

Through the Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) Consortium, OpenBiome collaborates with an international team of researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the microbiome and ensure that breakthroughs in microbiome-based medicine benefit patients worldwide.

An Urgent Need to Conserve and Study Global Microbiome Diversity

Microbiome research is transforming our understanding of human health but we are leaving many behind.

Current knowledge of the microbiome is largely focused on populations in the United States and Western Europe. Approximately 70% of samples available in public databases come from North America and Europe while 120 countries and territories have zero representation.

Because the microbiome varies widely across populations with different diets, lifestyles, and genetic backgrounds, this lack of representation limits both understanding of the microbiome as well as the applicability of future therapeutics for understudied communities.

Building and sharing the world’s most globally representative microbiome library

OpenBiome's Role

OpenBiome collaborates with the Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) — a nonprofit initiative that conserves and promotes understanding of global human microbiome diversity to advance public health.

Through the GMbC, OpenBiome supports microbiome sampling expeditions in underrepresented communities. Data and research materials from these studies are stored in the GMbC biobank and shared with scientists in the GMbC consortium. This critical research forms the basis for comparing microbiome diversity across different global populations.

To date, the GMbC has established a network of 90+ researchers in over three dozen countries and built a diverse collection of samples and bacterial isolates to spark scientific discovery.

Sampling Expeditions

OpenBiome has supported microbiome sampling expeditions in Argentina and Iraq, and is committed to supporting four additional studies in Borneo, Paraguay, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan in 2024.

In November 2023, OpenBiome team members joined a seminal study led by Gabriel Vinderola, Ph.D and Ana Binetti, Ph.D, as well as their team from The Universidad Nacional Litoral de Sante Fe (UNL) and The Institute of Industrial Lactology (INLAIN-UNL/CONICET)

Over two weeks, the researchers collected stool and saliva samples from approximately 100 study participants in Santa Fe city, as well rural agricultural and mountainous areas in Santa Fe and Cordoba provinces. Participants also completed a survey on their diet, medications, home environment and other lifestyle factors that impact the gut microbiome.

This new study will provide a baseline for microbiome diversity in underrepresented regions; enable comparisons among different global populations; and test whether reducing the consumption of processed foods and antibiotics – the hallmarks of industrialized lifestyles – can help restore the microbiome to a healthier, more diverse state.

More details on the sampling expedition can be found in OpenBiome's Press Release.

In the fall and winter of 2023, OpenBiome provided training and material support to a study led by Dr. Khalid Ibrahim from the University of Zakho.

Over several weeks, local researchers directed by Dr. Khalid, collected and analyzed stool and saliva samples, as well as optional oral swabs, from approximately 100 study participants. These participants —women and men over 18 years of age living in rural, semi-urban, and urban communities across Kurdistan, particularly Duhok Governate — also completed a survey on their diet, medication, home environment and other lifestyle factors that may impact their microbiome. The data and research materials will provide a baseline for microbiome diversity in these regions and enable comparisons to other populations around the world.

“The microbiome can change dramatically depending on a person’s diet and environment,” said Dr. Ibrahim, who also plans to use the data to investigate specific health concern in the communities, including illnesses associated with gas-industry work, particularly among the liquified petroleum gas and gasoline workers in stations. “So, it’s critical that we study healthy variation in microbiome diversity as well as how changes to the baseline can impact our well-being.”

More details on the sampling expedition can be found in OpenBiome's Press Release.

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