Global Microbiome Conservancy
gibbons.isbscience.org/news/2018/07/05/global-microbiome-conservancy/
The Global Microbiome Conservancy is a non-profit collaboration between scientists and communities around the world, unified around a common goal: to collect and preserve the full biodiversity of human gut microbes for future generations. The work of the conservancy is centered on four core goals:
Conservation
We dedicate our efforts to conserve an invisible, intimate and crucial biodiversity of the human body: the gut microbiome. By culturing, isolating and storing gut bacteria, we are building an open, non-profit and global library of our microbial heritage.
Representation
We are strongly committed in working with a wide variety of human populations worldwide, including under-represented and indigenous peoples, to promote inclusion in microbiome science. Participants conserve the ownership of their microbiomes.
Capacity building
Our global consortium promotes capacity building in partner institutions through scientific training and local research support.
Advancing knowledge
We generate microbiome resources for the research community to advance science and promote human health. Using these resources we will tackle big scientific questions on the human microbiome. We will strongly engage in outreach and educational activities to promote the objectives of the Conservancy and spread knowledge on the microbiome.
The Gibbons Lab is a member of the Global Microbiome Conservancy’s scientific consortium and helps in efforts to sample indigenous peoples in North America.
–photo credit: Christopher Corzett
