Kiel University announce new microbiome research centre

The Kiel Microbiome Center aims to catalyse microbiome research at Kiel University and launches this week with a series of scientific events

• New Kiel Microbiome Center at Kiel University connects local microbiome researchers
• Kick-off event from 23-26 September on key topics of the research field brings Kiel experts and international guests together
• The KMC aims in the long-term to improve health of humans, animals and plants on the basis of microbiome research

Kiel University is establishing a new research center: The Kiel Microbiome Center (KMC) is gaining momentum this week with a four day-inaugural event co-organized by the two KMC co-speakers Professor Mathilde Poyet from the Institute of Experimental Medicine (IEM) and Prof Mathieu Groussin from the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB), both at Kiel University’s Medical Faculty, and Prof. David Ellinghaus also from the IKMB. The new network is an integral part of Kiel University’s priority research area Kiel Life Science (KLS) and brings together the university’s strong community of microbiome researchers. By fostering collaboration and leveraging synergies, the KMC seeks to advance microbiome research and enhance scientific innovation at Kiel. 

Life science researchers at Kiel University have been working intensively on understanding why and how microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi establish long-term associations with multicellular host organisms and what functional consequences these interactions have on host biology. There is a growing scientific consensus that the collective community of these microorganisms—known as the microbiome—plays a critical role in maintaining the health of human, animal and plant metaorganisms. 

Kiel microbiome researchers join forces

At Kiel University, researchers across various institutes, faculties, and research consortia have been intensively studying this topic for years as part of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1182 “Origin and Function of Metaorganisms”. The newly established KMC now serves as a dynamic hub, uniting these scientists and providing them a shared organizational structure. “Together, we aim to expand our understanding of the microbiome and drive translational innovation. This means leveraging our growing insights into host-microorganism interactions to promote the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment,” emphasizes Poyet.

Kiel researchers from the Faculties of Medicine, Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Agriculture and Nutritional Sciences are participating in the KMC. The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön (MPI-EB) is also taking part. Furthermore, the newly founded center thematically links various research consortia at Kiel University and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), including the Cluster of Excellence “Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI)”, the CRC 1182 and the DFG Research Group 5042 “miTarget”. Last but not least, the foundation of the KMC also marks the finalization of the transition of the Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) to Kiel University and UKSH. The GMbC is an international initiative co-founded by Poyet and Groussin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whose aim is to understand and preserve global microbial diversity.

Microbiome research has been an important focus at our university for many years now, successfully keeping up with the competition on a national scale. Numerous high profile research consortia in this field are a testament of this development. In the future, the Kiel Microbiome Center will provide an organizational home for these different initiatives, which will help to maintain Kiel's leading position in microbiome research.

Professor Eckhard Quandt, Kiel University’s Vice President for Research

Inaugural week to kick off the KMC

A series of events to celebrate microbiome science in Kiel is taking place until September 26 at the Seeburg on Kiellinie, funded by the German NFDI4Microbiota consortium, the miTarget consortium and KLS. The events started on Monday with a day of celebration for the KMC kick-off, with interventions from KMC members. After the presentation of the vision and mission of the KMC, various local experts, including from the CRC 1182 and the Cluster of Excellence PMI, will presented current topics in microbiome research at Kiel University. The event also welcomed Professor Eric Alm from MIT, director of the Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutic (CMIT) at MIT, who is working on understanding the human microbiome and possible therapeutic interventions using both theoretical and experimental approaches. Eric Alm shareed his insights into recent developments in microbiome science and the specific objectives of the CMIT. 

The second day of the event was focused on a thematically broad conference on microbiome science and ethics in microbiome research. Transdisciplinary researchers from fields as diverse as host-microbe interactions, gastroenterology, science policy and medical ethics shared their most recent discoveries on the microbiome and reflected on the ethical implications of microbiome research. Prof Thulani Makhalanyane from Stellenbosch Univeristy, South Africa and editor in chief at the ISME journal discussed the role of ethics in advancing global microbiome research in Africa, and several international GMbC consortium members presented their ongoing research and key questions related to microbiome science worldwide.  

The KMC inaugural week concludes with a two-day in-person workshop on Wednesday and Thursday in the Quincke Forschungs-Zentrum at UKSH, including training materials for microbiome data analysis. The workshop leverages bioinformatic and IT infrastructure developed by the group of David Ellinghaus in the miTarget Research Unit. Participants to the workshop include many students from Germany and from many research groups of the GMbC consortium, traveling to Kiel from South America, Africa, and Asia. This workshop is part of GMbC’s and NFDI4Microbiota’s engagement in capacity building, which is part of their core activities. An unpublished dataset from the GMbC initiative will be provided for the practical sessions and will lead to a publication co-authored by participants. 

KMC flagship project

In addition to research projects currently being planned, the KMC already features a particularly visible flagship project. Its goal is to investigate how global, primarily anthropogenic, environmental changes impact microbiomes and metaorganisms. The KMC is planning investigations of plant, animal and human populations worldwide where industrialization is modifying human societies and environments. Supported by the PMI, this effort will also include the investigation of patient cohorts in countries involved in the GMbC. Key microbiome-associated chronic diseases studied in the PMI, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, will be particularly prioritized. In this way, the Kiel researchers want to understand which underlying mechanisms in a changing environment influence the dynamics of microbial communities and their relationships with host organisms.

“Leveraging the GMbC consortium network, we want to study microbiomes from different ecological and geographical contexts. They represent an invaluable resource for understanding the impact of industrialized practises on ecosystems, and for developing strategies for microbiome restoring that are relevant to local contexts” says Groussin.

This article was first published on 26 September by Kiel University.