Studies of human microbiome have ignored the developing world, potentially compromising treatments Without more samples from people in diverse locales, the full picture of microbes on and in our bodies will remain incomplete, scientists warn. Thousands of studies have linked the trillions of microbes living in and on our bodies to conditions from cancer to autism to depression. But most microbiome samples come from wealthy countries in North America and Europe, a new analysis finds, distorting our understanding of human-microbe interactions. In an effort to diversify knowledge, scientists have launched a Microbiota Vault in Basel, Switzerland, a storage project akin to the “doomsday” crop seed vault, aiming to preserve microbiome samples from all over the world. Knight Lab July 20, 2022 0 Share
