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The ambition of the NCCR Microbiomes is to leap to a new level of understanding that enables rational management of microbiomes for health, environment and engineering applications.

Mission

The NCCR Microbiomes brings together an interdisciplinary consortium made up of 24 research groups from six institutions across Switzerland.

Network

INVISIBLES. La vie cachée des microbes. Our exhibition with the Musée de la main (Lausanne), until January 2026.

Exhibition

Microbiomes: a new video game to discover how microbes live, reproduce and interact!

Free download

Enabling rational management of microbes for health, environment and engineering applications

The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Microbiomes brings together a unique and interdisciplinary research program with experimental and clinical microbiome studies. Combining computational, modeling, engineering and synthetic approaches, the Centre aims to understand the unifying principles of microbiome functioning, to develop tools to diagnose microbiome status, and to devise strategies to intervene and restore imbalanced microbiomes. Its scope encompasses microbial communities in human, animals, plants, as well as in natural and industrial environments.

The NCCR Microbiomes comprises 25 research teams from across Switzerland: the University of Lausanne (leading house), ETH Zurich (co-leading house), EPF Lausanne, the University of Zurich, the University of Bern, and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). It brings together internationally recognized experts in human infections, animal gut and plant microbiomes, genomics and computational biology, applied and environmental microbiology, and microbial ecology and evolution. Launched in 2020, the NCCR Microbiomes is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

NCCR BROCHURE (en) BROCHURE PRN (fr) BROSCHÜRE NFS (de)

Research

An interdisciplinary approach

The NCCR Microbiomes integrates computational biology, bioinformatics, experimental approaches and medical microbiology with a focus on synthetic and engineering applications.

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NCCR Stories

NCCR Microbiomes Image Competition

On the occasion of its 2023 Annual Review, the NCCR Microbiomes invited its members to submit artworks on the topic ‘working with microbiomes’. Here are the submissions and awards (jury and audience prizes). MICROBIAL ICE Author: Estelle Pignon, UNIL WINNER FIRST PLACE OF THE JURY PRIZE In the depths of the microscopic sight,A microbial song, […]

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NCCR Stories

Behind the scenes: how do soil bacterial communities assemble?

Senka Causevic and Janko Tackmann How do microbial soil ecosystems assemble? This question brought together two very different research groups from the NCCR Microbiomes community, leading to work that was finally published in March 2022(1). Here, we present the story behind this publication. Soils are vast ecosystems, teeming with life and full of microbial diversity. […]

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NCCR Stories

In memoriam Alma Dal Co

On November 14, 2022, our beloved friend and colleague Alma Dal Co passed away. She died doing what she loved most, diving, off the coast of Pantelleria in Italy. She was 33 years old at the time of her passing. Alma was a professor at the University of Lausanne in the Department of Computational Biology, […]

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