The MetaSUB Research Consortium involves scientists and researchers with varied areas of expertise worldwide to undertake challenges and seek the unknown The projects below address a wide variety of scientific questions and exploration of different fields. Some of these projects are ongoing while some take place on an annual basis.
- Global City Sampling Day
- MetaCoV
- MetaMED
- MetaCATs
- Olympiome
- StuckOnU
- MetaSEW
- MetaBEA
- MetaSTREET
- MetaAIR
- The Extreme Microbiome Project
- Brooklyn Bioreactor
- CAMDA Challenge
- Monumentome
- Pathomap
GLOBAL CITY SAMPLING DAY
The MetaSUB International Consortium launched on June 21, 2016 the first annual Global City Sampling Day (gCSD). This day scientists, researchers, and trained citizen scientists collected samples from mass-transit systems around the globe. The purpose of gCSD is to have a standardized and coordinated collection of samples across all the world. Since 2016, samples have been taken annually on June 21st.
2016 – Present
METACoV: RNA/COVID-19 ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING
With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the MetaSUB International Consortium banded together to sample urban environments in cities around the globe before, during and after the pandemic. The project aims to characterize the change in the urban metagenome and possibly isolate the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
2020 – Present
METAMED: GLOBAL HOSPITAL SAMPLING
The project aims to collect and analyze samples from hospital/medical environments to compare microbial communities in these environments to the microbial communities in other public spaces collected within the MetaSUB project.
2019 – Present
METACATS: DOMESTIC CAT CORONAVIRUSES & MICROBIOME
The MetaCATS Project aims to study the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses in domestic cats, along with their microbial communities or microbiomes. Studies suggest that cats may be more permissive to the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, however lack of field studies leave a lack of understanding to the transmissibility of the virus in these animals.
2020 – Present
OLYMPIOME: OLYMPIC GAMES SAMPLING
As a part of a global consortium to monitor cities, the aim of the project is to pioneer the first-ever, city-scale collection and measure of the Olympics, dubbed the Olympiome. The project will track the localization, transit, and persistence of these visitors’ metagenomes and determine where they colonize and change the local urban metagenome of the host city, including the presence and the fluctuations of medically relevant entities such as anti-microbial resistance markers (AMRs) and phages.
2016, 2021
STUCKONU
StuckOnU is an experiment that takes place across various conferences and meetings where cell phones are swabbed and the DNA sequenced is the DNA “stuck” on your phone. The latest in next generation sequencing is utilized to do a full metagenomics profile of the phone to look at the microbiome to predict what was the last thing the phone owner ate ate, predict their ancestry, and so much more.
2017 – Present
METASEW: SEWER AND WASTEWATER SAMPLING
The MetaSEW project (Metagenomics of the SEWage system) consists of the periodic metagenomic analysis of several points of the sewage system to collect approximate numbers of each of the species detected. This project is run in cooperation with the Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo (IMM), Uruguay. The main goal of this project is to show the power and usefulness of metagenomics analysis with the long term view that it will become a regular/periodic analysis.
2016 – Present
METABEA: BEACH AND SHORELINE SAMPLING
MetaBEA (Metagenomics analysis of the BEAches) in Montevideo, Canelones and Maldonado, Uruguay is a project to analyze the quality of the beaches for health, promotional and improvement purposes. Samples are taken from the seawater as well as the beach itself.
2016 – Present
METASTREET: URBAN ENVIRONMENT SAMPLING
The MetaSTREET project aims at monitoring of the molecular diversity of both the eukaryotic and prokaryotic micro-organisms present in the street gutters at the city scale, and in different countries. The understanding of these world-wide communities might have huge public health consequences. The management of street microorganisms, which might spread within the entire cities, could also have implications in the management of runoff by municipalities and help to build smart and sustainable cities.
2016 – Present
METAAIR: AIR SAMPLING
The MetaAIR project (Metagenomics of the Air) is an ongoing project with aims to conduct metagenomic analysis on aerosol samples globally. Currently MetAIR works in conjunction with Global City Sampling Day to collect air samples on an annual basis in cities around the world.
2016 – Present
THE EXTREME MICROBIOME PROJECT
The Extreme Microbiome Project (XMP) is a project launched by the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities Metagenomics Research Group (ABRF MGRG) that focuses on whole genome shotgun sequencing of extreme and unique environments using a wide variety of biomolecular techniques.
2014 – Present
THE BROOKLYN BIOREACTOR
In 2016, a plan was announced to start dredging and sub-aquatic capping the Gowanus Canal (New York City, New York, United States) as part of the USEPA Superfund Cleanup. During which a project was launched to discover new communities of microorganisms capable of biologically processing pollutants, such as those at the Superfund.
2016 – Present
CAMDA CHALLENGE
The Scientific Programme Committee of the Conference on Critical Assessment of Massive Data Analysis (CAMDA) have collaborated on the first ever multi-city study on forensic metagenomics. CAMDA focuses on one of the grand challenges of our time, which is the harnessing of Big Data in the biological sciences.
Researchers worldwide are invited annually to compare their best work on these data, taking on the CAMDA Challenge, with prizes awarded to the winning contributions by vote of all delegates in an open-ended contest.
Annual
MONUMENTOME: MONUMENT AND LANDMARK SAMPLING
The Monumentome project launched with aims to collect samples from the world’s greatest monuments. Primarily to provide the first catalog of microorganisms on monuments around the world, information that can be used by authorities in conserving the monuments.
2018 – Present
PATHOMAP
PathoMap was a research project by WCMC to study the microbiome and metagenome of the built environment of New York City, New York, United States. The project expanded into MetaSUB (gCSD) soon after.
2013