Report recommends ‘highly ambitious enterprise’ to create world-leading UK Microbiome Biobank

A new report calls for a ’highly ambitious enterprise’ to create a microbiome biobank that will contribute significantly to the advancement of science and its application to human health.

It is anticipated that the world-leading UK Microbiome Biobank (UKMB) will support academic and industrial scientists in the quest for new medicines and solutions to some of the most significant challenges faced by the world.

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Dr Matthew Ryan is Senior Research Lead, Biological Resources at CABI (Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International) and lead author of the report entitled ‘Securing the future of microbiome research and innovation: The need for biobanking infrastructure in the UK.’ It was facilitated by the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC)

He is one of several scientists from a range of UK institutions, including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Rothamsted Research, Unilever and the Natural History Museum, who believe the UK Microbiome Biobank will enhance economic competitiveness in the life sciences and the sustainability of our bioeconomy.

Important role in sustaining life

Dr Ryan said, “We now know that microbes play an incredibly important role in sustaining all forms of life on Earth and in supporting the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment.

“Microbes have the potential to contribute to solutions for treating cancer, neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases, antimicrobial resistance and pandemics, a sustainable agriculture system that can feed the world’s growing population while, at the same time, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions in support of achieving net zero.”

He says that to ensure that we have the resources for research and innovation aimed at finding such solutions, we need to conserve source materials and microbes (individual strains and communities), sequence their genomes, and make the material and data available for researchers of today and the future on a scale that has, hitherto, not been feasible.

Setting the benchmark

Dr Andrew Morgan, Chair of the Microbiome Innovation Advisory Group, Innovate UK Business Connect and an independent contributor to the report, said, “To date, such activities have been largely conducted in silos by different research groups, both academic and private enterprises, with very little attempt at ensuring common standards of sampling, DNA extraction, sequencing, data handling and management.

“The new venture will set the benchmark for such standards, thereby advancing the rigour and applicability of microbiome science more widely and across all main sectors of microbiome research - human, animal, plant and environmental.”

He added that, in effect, this is a One Health UK Microbiome Bank that is as much about biobanking as the standards needed to set up and run such an enterprise and for the field at large.

Key questions

Dr Morgan said, “By developing and embedding such standards, the initiative will provide a longitudinal view of microbial diversity, metabolism and function as it potentially changes, enabling us to answer key questions about the impact over time of different human activities, practices, interventions and conservation measures and, not least, of climate change.

“Moreover, if microbial biodiversity is lost over time, by conserving microbes and communities of microbes from key environments into the future, we shall have the possible means to restore the lost biodiversity for the benefit of societal and planetary health and wellbeing.”

To establish the UKMB, the report suggests a few recommendations including the creation of a central coordinating UKMB hub and database with ‘spokes’ that represents thematic areas including human health, animal health, soil, plants and environment, food systems and biofilms – including the National Biofilms Innovation Centre.

Beacon for microbiome science

The report also states that the UKMB will have to incorporate existing UK biobanking and culture collection infrastructure. For example, medical biobanks, culture collections, seedbanks, zoological and molecular collections) and link with other UKRI national capabilities, EU and other European infrastructures and international activities, including standards and regulatory organisations.

Dr Ryan said, “The UKMB will be a beacon for the UK’s world-class microbiome science, a catalyst for innovation in the life sciences aligned to the UK’s Life Sciences Vision 2021, an accelerator of economic growth, and a resource that will conserve microbial biodiversity for generations to come.”