Great projects such as Human Microbiome Project and MetaHIT have arrived to the end in the last two years, but it doesn’t mean research on gut microbiota stops. A second generation of studies has started, evidencing the relevance of this topic. Scientist are focusing on gut microbiota, increasing the current knowledge about its importance and relation with our health and wellbeing and trying to bring the research closer to clinical and medical applications.

Let us present you 2 projects you will certainly hear about in the following months:

My.Microbes

All started when Dr. Peer Bork and his team at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg (Germany) discovered that there are 3 distinctive gut bacterial community types (enterotypes) that divide up the world. Following this important finding, they decided to launch My.microbes.eu, a social network aimed at connecting people with similar intestinal bacterial compositions. By providing a stool sample and funding for its analysis (around €840 by December 2012), participants can join the study and, while having their own microbiota sequenced, they can also discuss their digestive health status with other participants. As explained on the My.microbes website, the objective of the project is to coordinate a large-scale scientific study open to everyone: “The study aims to provide new ways of analyzing any person’s gut microbes in the context of samples from many individuals around the world”.

Interested in learning more about My.microbes? Check this great video.