A New Era in Reproducibility: The NIST Gut Microbiome Reference Material
Virtual , Event
April 29, 2025
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Significant investment in gut microbiome research has continued since uncovering the various roles of gut microbes in health and disease. At the same time, due to the dynamic nature and complexity of biological samples, challenges with reproducibility and comparability across studies are among the greatest encountered across research fields. Cross-study comparability is essential for answering questions that support general health and to provide biomedical solutions. Over the past 6 years, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been working on a human whole stool reference material. This material, “RM 8048 Human Fecal Material” just released in March 2025, and a companion “RGTM 10212 Fecal Metabolite Mixture” under development, have the capacity to serve as gold standards for metagenomic and metabolomic analyses, allowing scientists to understand reproducibility and compare data like never before. In this webinar, NIST scientists will describe the development process and explain the transformative potential of these materials for gut microbiome science.
Speakers:
Scott Jackson, PhD, NIST
Sandra da Silva, PhD, NIST
Stephanie Servetas, PhD, NIST
This research was supported by IAFNS Nutrition for Gut Health Commmittee.