![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Neutrality is critical, said Dominguez-Bello, because all countries must be willing to contribute to the collection in order to make it as diverse, and thus comprehensive, as possible. The facility should be located in a politically neutral country with sufficient resources to guarantee the safety of the collection, according to the proposal. Once fully launched, the vault would of course need continuous funding to sustain itself. It’s home to the world’s largest collection of crop diversity. Dominguez-Bello estimates the microbial vault will require about $3 million in its first year to hire workers who will then collect and store microbes in a repository equipped with liquid nitrogen tanks. The idea for such a vault was inspired by other “bio-banks,” most famously the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a secure facility on a Norwegian island above the Arctic circle. “The United Nations could ask the depositors to retrieve certain microbiota in the case of emergency.” The microbial vault would act as hard-drive of sorts, where researchers could store back-ups of vanishing microbiota. Scientists and doctors may one day be able to prevent certain diseases by reintroducing lost microbiota to at-risk populations, the researchers said. “In the case of war or an epidemic, this collection could potentially be used for humanitarian reasons,” Dominguez-Bello said. Microbial diversity is a crisis much like climate change, both in cause and potential consequences. Indigenous South Americans who haven’t been been exposed to antibiotics, for example, have double the gut diversity than otherwise healthy people in the U.S., according to a 2015 report from Science Magazine. Such individuals tend to be located in remote regions with little access to certain modern medicines, she said. But only if researchers, scientists and governments act now.Īs urban communities see a decline in microbial diversity, Dominguez-Bello said she hopes to spur researchers to collect samples from people with robust, healthy microbes. And the loss of microbial diversity is likely an underlying factor. Asthma, celiac disease, allergies, type one diabetes and autism are skyrocketing. “The decline in microbial diversity has been dramatic in the last 50 to 70 years, decreasing with each new generation,” said Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, the lead author of the proposal and a professor in the Rutgers Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. “But we can’t wait another 70 years. Rutgers University researchers are proposing a last-resort vault be built to store ‘good’ germs that might soon disappear from the planet. Scientists believe the loss of microbial diversity has already had serious health consequences-and could soon lead to a crisis. Human microbiota, a community of trillions of microorganisms that include bacteria, fungi and viruses, performs critical health functions in the human body, from facilitating digestion to bolstering the immune system. (Bloomberg) - As the world’s microbial diversity is decimated by antibiotics, processed food, filtered water and other wonders of modern life, researchers are proposing the creation of a global microbiota vault to protect the long-term health of humanity. ![]()
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