Perspectives for Consideration in the Development of Microbial Cell Reference Materials.

Microbiome measurement and analyses benefit greatly from incorporation of reference materials as controls. However, there are many points to consider in defining an ideal whole-cell reference material standard. Such a standard would embody all the diversity and measurement challenges present in real samples, would be completely characterized to provide "ground truth" data, and would be inexpensive and widely available. This ideal is, unfortunately, not readily attainable because of the diverse nature of different sequencing projects. Some applications may benefit most from highly complex reference materials, while others will value characterization or low expense more highly. The selection of appropriate microbial whole-cell reference materials to benchmark and validate microbial measurements should be considered carefully and may vary among specific applications. In this article, we describe a perspective on the development of whole-cell microbial reference materials for use in metagenomics analyses.

Next steps in studying the human microbiome and health in prospective studies, Bethesda, MD, May 16-17, 2017.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored a 2-day workshop, "Next Steps in Studying the Human Microbiome and Health in Prospective Studies," in Bethesda, Maryland, May 16-17, 2017. The workshop brought together researchers in the field to discuss the challenges of conducting microbiome studies, including study design, collection and processing of samples, bioinformatics and statistical methods, publishing results, and ensuring reproducibility of published results. The presenters emphasized the great potential of microbiome research in understanding the etiology of cancer. This report summarizes the workshop and presents practical suggestions for conducting microbiome studies, from workshop presenters, moderators, and participants.