It is the mission of the MetaSUB Europe society to strengthen scientific research and collaboration to further explore the microbiome of the human environment. Outnumbering the human population by the trillions, the community of microbes living around us strongly influences our daily life and personal well being. Yet, the major part of this world is still unexplored and remains to be mapped and described. Together with researchers and citizen scientists it is the goal of MetaSUB to shed light onto this fascinating world and to help broadly disseminate the knowledge collected so far.
The built environment of human civilization also provides living space for a myriad of microorganisms dwelling on surfaces or hidden deep in the built infrastructure. Being a natural part of our environment, they form an important fraction of nature that everybody interacts with on a daily basis.
Microorganisms living around us are not only interesting as a subject of study in their own right, but also in their role as important players of the human exposome: the set of factors humans are exposed to within their environment.
Citizen science is a central component of the MetaSUB mission. This not only includes informing and educating the interested public about research on the environmental microbiome, but also to include volunteers for data collection.
