mOTUS joins Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

mOTUs quantifies the relative abundance and activity of microorganisms in biological samples, from wastewater to animals to human body sites. It uses so-called ‘universal marker genes’ to identify species from their DNA – a new approach that is more efficient than previous methods and allows analysis of microbes that lack a representative genome sequence.

Applications include:

• profiling the composition of the global ocean microbiome (recognized as a SIB Remarkable Output in 2022);
• identifying microbial signatures in clinical phenotypes, such as those specific for colorectal cancer.

mOTUs has recently been recognized as an official SIB Resource by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), following a rigorous evaluation and selection process. This distinction underscores its crucial importance for the global life science community and ensures continued support for its development.

mOTUS was developed by the Microbiome Research lab of NCCR PI S. Sunagawa in ETH Zurich, the NCCR Microbiomes, the EMBL, Keio University and Leiden University.

https://www.sib.swiss/news/three-leading-bioinformatics-resources-join-the-sib-portfolio