HDHL-INTIMIC: A European Knowledge Platform on Food, Diet, Intestinal Microbiomics, and Human Health

Abstract

Studies indicate that the intestinal microbiota influences general metabolic processes in humans, thereby modulating the risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, allergy, cardiovascular disease, and colorectal cancer (CRC). Dietary factors are also directly related to chronic disease risk, and they affect the composition and function of the gut microbiota. Still, detailed knowledge on the relation between diet, the microbiota, and chronic disease risk is limited. The overarching aim of the HDHL-INTIMIC (INtesTInal MICrobiomics) knowledge platform is to foster studies on the microbiota, nutrition, and health by assembling available knowledge of the microbiota and of the other aspects (e.g., food science and metabolomics) that are relevant in the context of microbiome research. The goal is to make this information findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) to the scientific community, and to share information with the various stakeholders. Through these efforts a network of transnational and multidisciplinary collaboration has emerged, which has contributed to further develop and increase the impact of microbiome research in human health. The roles of microbiota in early infancy, during ageing, and in subclinical and clinically manifested disease are identified as urgent areas of research in this knowledge platform.

Keywords: FAIR; data integration; data sharing; diet; health; metabolomics; microbiome; networking; reference microbiome; standardization.

Figure 1

Representation of the various tasks and their interconnection within the INTIMIC knowledge platform. The project is built around use cases both in humans (WP6) and model organisms (WP7). Key in the development on the platform is the definition of a reference microbiome which is done in WP3. Important for the use case is the development of standards, which is done in WP2 and WP4. In order to perform, the use case’s rich (meta) data should be collected in a interoperable way; this is done in WP1. Key to the success of the project is project management (WP8), but especially building the network of researchers within the platform and also the communication of the results to the outside world (WP5).