Sampling expeditions represent a significant amount of time, usually 3 weeks in each country to recruit 100 participants across several locations. But most of the work actually happen between trips. Wondering what the GMbC team is up to during the #shutdown? Thread

We are continuously working on networking with scientists, administrations and NGOs around the globe and getting ethical approvals and legal permits to be able to work in additional countries. Spoiler alert: Nepal, Indonesia and Argentina may be our next destinations!

As of today, our consortium involves 70+ scientists across 36 countries, collecting and preserving the biodiversity of human gut microbes for future generations. If you would like to join our effort we encourage you to contact us! http://microbiomeconservancy.org/about/consortium/

We are also making a lot of progress analyzing the data generated since we launched our initiative in 2016. From the first 1,000+ participants involved in the GMbC, diet and health metadata, as well as 16S and metagenomics #microbiome data, have been put together and analyzed.

Interested in understanding how the recent loss of gut microbial biodiversity in industrialized societies impacts human health? How does the microbiome interact with the innate and adaptive immune system and how did these interactions co-evolve? Stay tuned!

While no more wet lab work can currently happen, we are also actively elaborating new protocols to get ready for next experiments. One of the most challenging parts of our work is to design new media to isolate the full diversity of human gut bacteria and biobank them.

We have already hundreds of bacterial species biobanked including 200+ under-characterized taxonomies. Give us your opinion on which bacterial genus/order/phylum we should focus our efforts on when we get back to the lab!

See our progress so far on http://microbiomeconservancy.org 
and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/microbiome_conservancy/
#mindyourmicrobes #microbiomematters

@mgroussi @mathildpoyet @MITMicrobiome @MIT @broadinstitute @CCorzett @ejalm @GabrielVinderol @bjesseshapiro @cath__girard @AdrianPintoT @LehtimakiJenni @PinjaKet @lsegurel @uni_malaya @Dr_Imran_Malik @blekhman @cduvallet @BerdyAndTheBees @AinaraSistiaga @gibbological @tvatanen