Call for projects COHORTES-MICROBIOMES

Studies on the human microbiome indicate that an alteration in the relationship between humans and their microbiomes is one of the determining factors in the onset and persistence of chronic diseases, which have become a major public health problem.

France benefits from dynamic clinical and epidemiological research, enabling in-depth clinical, biological and nutritional phenotyping of a wide range of subjects and patients. However, financial and technical constraints limit the characterization of associated microbial ecosystems, particularly in terms of their composition, functions and metabolites, products of their activities and those of the host.

To meet these challenges, the COHORTES-MICROBIOMES project of PEPR SAMS aims to support analyses that will enable the characterization of human microbiomes or host-microbiome interactions of healthy subjects or highly phenotyped patients participating in clinical studies or included in existing cohorts. To ensure the comparability of data generated when studying the human microbiota, appropriate sample collection procedures and methods will need to be followed. In this context, a call for projects will be organized by Inserm on behalf of the PEPR SAMS management as part of the targeted COHORTES-MICROBIOMES project.

Funding will be a maximum of €250,000 (including management costs).

Eligible projects will have a maximum duration of 3 years, including the sample collection phases (where applicable), as well as the technical phases of data processing and analysis.

Selected projects will receive financial support for the characterization of microbiomes through meta-omics analyses, mainly shotgun metagenomics and metabolomics. Other requests for omics analyses will have to be justified in terms of scientific interest and data already collected. More specifically, the objectives are to take advantage of available data and biological samples already collected, or whose collection can be rapidly organized, in order to complete and enhance the studies. Projects must be in line with the priorities of the “microbiomes and health” pillar and the SAMS PEPR axes, which aim to i) identify associations between environmental factors and the state of the microbiome-host symbiosis, ii) mechanisms of host-microbiome interactions, or iii) biomarkers linked to human microbiome dysfunction, or iv) preventive or therapeutic approaches.

Depending on the study design, project leaders may request funding for metagenomic and/or metabolomic analyses, or for other omics analyses if justified (except for studies associated with Le French Gut). To reinforce the analyses, part of the funding may be dedicated to: i) completing the collection of information on the subjects’ dietary habits, concomitant with the biological samples to be studied and/or ii) financing human resources for the analysis and integration of multi-omic and clinical data.

There are two possible ways of participating in this call for proposals: i) In the general case, apply as an independent cohort for metagenomic and/or metabolomic analyses; ii) In the specific case, apply in association with the Le French Gut project for metagenomic analyses of human stool microbiota.