“Our mission is to make tremendous improvements to human health through microbiome science”, states the front page of the new American Microbiome Institute’s website. Established in 2013, it is a non-profit organization aimed at advancing science and education related to microbiomes. Although they have ‘American’ in their name, they pursue establishing cooperation ties with researchers in Europe.
Companies, academic institutions, foundations and hospitals are invited to collaborate in this field, under the coordination of the American Microbiome Institute (AMI). The Institute already has three ongoing projects: the first is dedicated to the supervision of quality in microbiome research studies; the second one is the American Microbiome Institute Centre for Advanced Research, founded and run by the AMI, which supports complete research projects, from study design to data analysis.
“We’d like to create a core facility where other researchers can come and consult and also maybe even do the analysis within our facility”, William Bonificio, co-founder and co-CEO of the AMI explained to our colleague Kristina Campbell from Gut Microbiota for Health Experts Exchange platform. Furthermore, they also expect to create a database that keeps track of biological samples used in research.
The last of the ongoing projects is linked to education initiatives, with the aim to make the general public understand the importance of the microbiota. The platform has a blog with posts and questions related to the human microbiome, which are published regularly. They also have a section on the microbiome and its influence on nutrition, behaviour, disease and immune system.
We’d like to toast the publication of another excellent source of information about gut bacteria.
