MiRiBA (Microbiome Research in the Boston Area) is a Broad Institute-based research consortium that draws together clinicians and scientists from across the Boston area to launch DNA sequencing-based studies aimed at understanding the role of microbial communities in human health.

This initiative springs from the ongoing work of Broad Institute researchers to survey the vast diversity of microbes living on and within the human body (known collectively as the “microbiome”) and to reveal how these microbial communities influence health and disease.  

MiRiBA scientists harness culture-independent approaches to identify the individual microbial populations that comprise the microbiomes of humans as well as model organisms, and develop new methods of high-throughput DNA sequencing to analyze specific microbial genes as well as whole genomes from samples taken from various body sites (including the skin, gut, vagina, mouth and airways).