The Microbiota Vault Initiative aims to preserve the rapidly decreasing human microbiome diversity. The goal is to store thousands of stool samples from all over the world in a massive biobank in an old Swiss military bunker in the Alps. As Adrian Egli is part of the launch team, our group is involved in receiving and (temporarily) storing these stool samples at -80 degrees at our Institute.
We are grateful for the media resonance for this important project!
The Swiss Public Broadcasting (SRF) covered the initiative
- In a news article on 29.03.23, "Darum kann unser Kot wertvoll sein für die Wissenschaft"
- In the TV programme "Puls" on 09.01.23, "Hoffnungsträger Mikrobiom – Gesunder Darm, gesunder Mensch?" including a Q&A with Adrian Egli
- On the news portal "Swissinfo" on 24.02.22, "Saving microbial diversity, one stool sample at a time" (also see our blog post about it here)
The Swiss Public Broadcasting in French (RTS) covered the project
- In a news clip and article on 15.02.23, "Des chercheurs suisses stockent des selles pour sauvegarder le microbiote humain"
- ... Which was taking up again in the news paper "Watson" on 15.02.23, "Die Schweizer Alpen werden zur Weltbank der 💩"
The Swiss Newspaper "NZZ am Sonntag" reported
- In an article on 06.11.21, "Aus diesen Stuhlproben wird vielleicht einmal Gold"
The University of Basel Magazine "Uni Nova" discussed the initiative
- In an article in 01.2022, "Bakterien bunkern."
And even in the cinema you can come across the Microbiota Vault Initiative: Check out our recent blog post about the project at the 5th Global Science Film Festival!