MICRObiome Biobanking (RI) Enabler

Project supported by the Phytobiomes Alliance

Funded by

Funded by European Union – Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)

Duration

4 years

Dates

1 February 2023 - 31 January 2027

Coordinator

Tanja Kostic (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria)

Website

https://www.microbeproject.eu/

Project Overview

MICROBE paves the way for an innovative microbiome biobanking in Europe by combining scientific expertise with research infrastructures know-how.

Biobanking of complex microbiome samples has been initiated in the human healthcare sector, for example, by initiatives such as the Microbiota Vault Project or the Global Microbiome Conservancy initiative, but across other biological domains research infrastructures currently lack optimised methodologies and technologies to preserve and provide access to microbiome samples and massive amounts of associated data. The most significant technological bottleneck is the development of optimised methodologies for the preservation of microbiomes and for assessing the success of preservation in maintaining their composition and functionality. There is also an imminent need for the establishment of a unified data infrastructure to support microbiome research and innovation, as well as the implementation of standardisation across sectors.

MICROBE focuses on developing technical methods for preservation, isolation, co-cultivation and functionality assessment, novel ecological concepts and data infrastructures. Besides assessing the applicability of the technological solutions, MICROBE will also work on ethical and legal requirements and develop new business models. MICROBE cooperates with relevant European research infrastructures, BBMRI-ERIC, MIRRI, ELIXIR and EMBRC-ERIC, to ensure the validation and uptake of project results into practice.

Objectives

MICROBE´s approaches will enable:

maximal preservation of taxonomic and functional biodiversity in selected microbiome samples
optimal collection and preservation of microbiome samples for defined subsequent analyses
targeted isolation of microbiome members from different domains and assembly of synthetic consortia that retain (and even optimise) the functional diversity of original microbiomes
provision of a comprehensive operational blueprint for the establishment of microbiome biobanking infrastructures