Food, Global Health 2 min

Le French Gut project: a contribution to accelerate microbiome science globally

Launch of Le French Gut project, the French national contribution to the international Million Microbiome of Humans Project. Initiated by INRAE through its research unit MetaGenoPolis in strong association with AP-HP, Le French Gut aims to better understand healthy gut microbiota and modelling and predicting changes in gut microbiota associated with diseases.

Published on 15 September 2022

© INRAE

At the 14th International Conference on Genomics (ICG-14), scientists from China, Sweden, Denmark, France and Latvia launched The Million Microbiome of Humans Project (MMHP) and agreed to collaborate on a large-scale microbial metagenomic project. The overarching goal is to build the world's largest database of human microbiota with one million microbial samples from the intestines, mouth, skin and reproductive system. Therefore, making it possible to characterize the microbiota of healthy people according to age, gender, height, weight, etc., to define references, like blood tests. To achieve its ambition, MMHP is gathering research institutes around the world, including INRAE’s MetaGenoPolis (MGP) research unit.  

Visit MMHP website 
 

As a founding member of the MMHP, INRAE will bring the French national contribution: 100 000 faecal samples and associated nutritional and clinical data from France, by 2027, through Le French Gut project. Thus, making a major contributing to one of the largest microbiota databases worldwide, with the statistical power needed to explore the potential of the intestinal microbiota to prevent and treat many chronic diseases.

Initiated by the MGP research unit, Le French Gut is led by INRAE in strong association with the AP-HP (Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris), with the support and collaboration of a consortium of members from medical, scientific and industrial sectors.

Three scientific targets for this project: 

  • to map the intestinal microbiota in France;
  • to model and predict changes in the gut microbiota associated with chronic diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases;
  • to describe the variations of the intestinal microbiota associated with the presence and development of certain diseases.

Get the full picture in video!

This project has been approved by the Committee for the Protection of Persons (CPP) and the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL).

 Le French Gut website

 

Ariane Lelah

Author

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