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.

缺乏前瞻性研究一直是在人群范围内评估微生物组在人类健康和疾病中的作用的主要障碍。为了解决这一重大的知识差距，我们针对护士健康研究 II 队列（护士中的微生物组研究，或 Micro-N）中的 20,000 名女性的粪便和口腔微生物组样本开展了大规模收集。利用自 1989 年以来从该队列中反复收集的丰富流行病学数据；已建立的存档血液、尿液、口腔细胞和肿瘤组织标本的生物储存库；可用的遗传和生物标志物数据；队列的持续随访；和 BIOM-Mass 微生物组研究平台，Micro-N 为未来的前瞻性研究提供了无与伦比的资源，以探究宿主、环境因素之间的相互作用，以及人类健康中的微生物组。这些前瞻性收集的材料将为推断微生物组相关结果的因果关系提供急需的证据，为开发针对微生物群的调节剂、预防剂、诊断剂和治疗剂铺平道路。在这里，我们描述了一个可通用、可扩展且具有成本效益的平台，用于在 Micro-N 研究中收集粪便和口腔微生物组样本和元数据，作为如何进行微生物组前瞻性研究的一个例子。