Overview of the Microbiome among Nurses Study (Micro-N) as an Example of Prospective Characterization of the Microbiome within Cohort Studies

Authors

Christine Everett, Harvard University
Chengchen Li, Harvard University
Jeremy E. Wilkinson, Harvard University
Long H. Nguyen, Harvard University
Lauren J. McIver, Harvard University
Kerry Ivey, Harvard University
Jacques Izard, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Natalia Palacios, Harvard University
A. Heather Eliassen, Harvard University
Walter C. Willett, Harvard University
Alberto Ascherio, Harvard University
Qi Sun, Harvard University
Shelley S. Tworoger, Harvard University
Andrew T. Chan, Harvard University
Wendy S. Garrett, Harvard University
Curtis Huttenhower, Harvard University
Eric B. Rimm, Harvard University
Mingyang Song, Harvard UniversityFollow

ORCID IDs

Wilkinson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8024-5600

Nguyen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5436-4219

Izard http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5904-5436

Tworoger http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6986-7046

Song http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1324-0316

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-2021

Citation

Nature Protocols (June 2021) 16: 2,724–2,731

doi: 10.1038/s41596-021-00519-z

Comments

Copyright © 2021, the authors; published by Springer-Nature. Used by permission

Abstract

A lack of prospective studies has been a major barrier for assessing the role of the microbiome in human health and disease on a population-wide scale. To address this significant knowledge gap, we have launched a large-scale collection targeting fecal and oral microbiome specimens from 20,000 women within the Nurses’ Health Study II cohort (the Microbiome Among Nurses study, or Micro-N). Leveraging the rich epidemiologic data that have been repeatedly collected from this cohort since 1989; the established biorepository of archived blood, urine, buccal cell, and tumor tissue specimens; the available genetic and biomarker data; the cohort’s ongoing follow-up; and the BIOM-Mass microbiome research platform, Micro-N furnishes unparalleled resources for future prospective studies to interrogate the interplay between host, environmental factors, and the microbiome in human health. These prospectively collected materials will provide much-needed evidence to infer causality in microbiome-associated outcomes, paving the way toward development of microbiota-targeted modulators, preventives, diagnostics and therapeutics. Here, we describe a generalizable, scalable and cost-effective platform used for stool and oral microbiome specimen and metadata collection in the Micro-N study as an example of how prospective studies of the microbiome may be carried out.