Effective Feces Aliquotting Workflow Supports Increased Microbiome Research
A preview of this application note (paraphrased from the introduction):
Due to the growing understanding of how various microbes affect our health, the global study of the human microbiome has been accelerating. In many microbiome studies, fecal samples are the primary biosamples used to help researchers understand how the microbial community within the human gut relates to a variety of health problems, such as diabetes, obesity, and celiac disease. Because of safety and hygienic concerns, fecal samples are inherently difficult to work with in the lab. Furthermore, the varied semi-solid nature and heterogeneous composition of these samples complicates the workflow by disqualifying them from standard high-throughput processing techniques such as automated liquid handling. Such challenges in sample handling can increase pre-analytical variability when working with large numbers of patient samples, leading to significantly biased data. INRA’s MetaGenoPolis initiative, which is dedicated to establishing the impact of gut microbiota on health and disease, has employed frozen aliquotting technology as a means to standardize the processing of fecal samples in order to mitigate operational challenges and pre-analytical variability.
