Photo Credit: Stool Photo Credit: GMbC team processing stool samples in an improvised laboratory by a Bedik village in southeastern Senegal. ©Global Microbiome Conservancy / Photo by F. Rondon
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn more about the Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC ) program, including our mission and approach to collaborations.
About the GMbC Program
OpenBiome is a non-profit organization in the United States, dedicated to advancing global microbiome research to improve public health. Originally founded as a stool bank in 2013, we have provided over 68,000 fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) preparations to physicians treating recurrent C. difficile infections. We have also enabled more than 40 clinical studies exploring the therapeutic potential of FMT for a wide range of indications beyond C. difficile including autoimmune, neuropsychiatric, and metabolic disorders. OpenBiome has since expanded our mission to catalyze microbiome science on a global scale.
The Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) program is a flagship initiative at OpenBiome. Our mission is to conserve and promote understanding of the global diversity of the human microbiome to advance public health.
To date, the GMbC has
- Collected samples from 1200+ individuals from 30+ underrepresented communities worldwide
- Generated 1,000+ metagenomic surveys
- Isolated and whole genome sequenced ~10K bacterial isolates
- Established a consortium of over 80 researchers in 37 countries
Current understanding of the human microbiome is biased and vastly incomplete due to a historic focus on wealthy populations in the United States and Western Europe. As urbanization changes the human microbiome on a global scale, there is an urgent need to understand how humans and microbes interact across a wide range of diets, lifestyles, and genetic backgrounds. We believe that increasing representation in microbiome science is critical to understand and address some of the world’s fastest growing health challenges (e.g., diabetes, IBD, autoimmune disease and other microbiome-associated conditions).
The GMbC program operates through three core activities. We:
- Partner with researchers around the world to collect and study human-associated microbiota from underrepresented populations. Sampling and data analysis are standardized to enable comparison across countries.
- Share these materials and data with researchers through a non-profit microbiome library
- Connect scientists across our network to spark new research projects
The GMbC Program at OpenBiome is guided by a Science and Ethics Advisory Board. We are committed to building equitable, mutually beneficial collaborations that
- Reflect the research interests of the scientists we work with
- Enable collaborators to provide intellectual contributions
- Advance the research and careers of collaborators
We also commit to:
- Working with community leaders to determine how sampling will be conducted and how research materials can be used
- Creating a benefit sharing program that recognizes and compensates community members for donating samples
Our Approach to Collaborations
The GMbC program forms international collaborations with microbiome scientists and participating communities that provide samples. We are primarily interested in working with scientists and communities that have been historically underrepresented in microbiome research.
To strengthen our commitment to equitable collaborations, we have established a Scientific and Ethics Advisory Board comprising microbiome researchers and bioethicists.
Research collaborations are defined by a Memorandum of Agreement and Material Transfer Agreement. We are committed to building equitable, mutually beneficial collaborations that
- Reflect the research interests of the scientists we work with
- Enable collaborators to provide intellectual contributions
- Advance the research and careers of collaborators.
During the collaboration, OpenBiome provides funding to cover the cost of microbiome sampling; ensures full access to data; and provides training as well as access to computational tools and other resources as needed.
In return, collaborators are asked to collect and analyze data using standard protocols provided by the GMbC program; share research samples with the global scientific community through OpenBiome’s nonprofit microbiome library; participate in community benefit sharing through follow-up outreach.
As a result of this collaboration, we aim for participating scientists to publish a first author study and to make research materials (i.e., samples, isolates, and associated data) available to the broader scientific community through a nonprofit microbiome library housed at OpenBiome.
The GMbC program at OpenBiome and our research collaborators form lasting relationships with the communities we sample from. We treat sample donor communities with the highest degree of cultural sensitivity and respect, and work with community leaders to define how sampling should be performed as well as how resulting research materials can be used.
To compensate donor communities for their samples, we provide:
- A benefit sharing program adapted to the interests of each sample donor community.
- Long-term, accountable engagement that regularly reports outcomes and next steps.
To oversee these commitments, we have established a Science and Ethics Advisory Board comprising microbiome researchers and bioethicists.
Sample donor anonymity is protected at all times. All personal participant information, associated data, and related records are “de-identified”, i.e. each participant’s sample is immediately assigned a unique ID number that is known only by the study organizers, who maintain the key linking participant IDs with their personal information on an encrypted server/password protected laptop. Samples and data will only be released in de-identified form so that researchers cannot identify the identity of the participant.
Participants can withdraw from the study at any time, for any reason and without any consequences for them. If participants ask to be withdrawn from the study we will destroy their samples and all the bacterial strains cultured and isolated for their samples.