Following the successful establishment of the first WHO International Reference Reagent for microbiome analysis by Next-Generation Sequencing we have developed a complementary reference reagent for the harmonisation of DNA extraction of gut microbiome samples which is now available at the NIBSC catalogue.
Find out more about the development of this reagent in the published manuscript:
Developing whole cell standards for the microbiome field | Microbiome | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
In order to minimise the bias introduced during the DNA extraction process and to increase our confidence in reported results, MHRA has developed a whole cell reference reagent, NIBSC WC-Gut-RR (22/212) consisting of an even mix of twenty strains representing common microbiota of the gut, also included in the WHO DNA-Gut-Mix RR (20/302).
Our reagent is now available for use and will undergo an international collaborative study next year to be established as the first WHO International Reference Reagent for DNA extraction of gut microbiome samples. This will help support the harmonisation of results across microbiome methodologies allowing for reproducibility, comparability, and effective translation of research into the clinic.