Bettina Schelkle

TL;DR: A definition of microbiome is proposed based on the compact, clear, and comprehensive description of the term provided by Whipps et al. in 1988, amended with a set of novel recommendations considering the latest technological developments and research findings.

TL;DR: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being integrated into bioeconomy strategies around the world, including the European Green Deal as discussed by the authors, highlighting how microbiome-based innovations can contribute to policies that interface with the SDGs and argue that international cooperation in microbiome science is crucial for success.

TL;DR: An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

TL;DR: The microbiome research field is rapidly evolving, but the required biobanking infrastructure is currently fragmented and not prepared for the biobanks of microbiomes.

TL;DR: In this article , the authors present their views on the key issues related to the current system for metadata submission in omics research, and propose the development of a global metadata system, which should be easy to use, clearly structured in a hierarchical way, and should be compatible with all existing microbiome data repositories, following common standards for minimal required information and common ontology.