Good germs, bad germs: A participatory model for mapping the domestic microbiome

人类充满了生命。我们的身体、家园和城市支撑着无数微生物生物多样性。这些通常被认为是应该根除的致病“细菌”。但是，元基因组学--对从环境中提取的遗传物质进行测序--的最新进展，已经开始揭示“人类微生物群”的普遍存在和功能重要性：我们体内、身上和周围的微生物生命。元基因组学有助于确定这些迄今看不见的世界中可能对人类健康产生影响的广泛变化。有些疾病，如过敏、自身免疫和抗生素耐药性，已与现代卫生实践联系在一起。微生物组越来越受欢迎和政策上的兴趣，以及与细菌生活在一起的更微妙或更“益生菌”方式的可能性。然而，到目前为止，公众对元基因组学的科学和技术及其代表微生物组的潜在变革性手段的参与有限。这个项目将解决这一差距。通过对家庭厨房实践的深入调查，它将探索元基因组学在发展公众对家庭卫生的新理解方面的变革潜力。该项目的研究设计将结合人种学方法和实验室技术，通过与来自城市社区的12户家庭进行长达一年的合作。这些家庭将被要求在九个月的时间里每月调查一次他们的家庭微生物群，进行九个比喻的微生物狩猎。这些Safaris的重点将从谈判中产生，了解我们参与者的兴趣、相关学术文献以及我们项目合作伙伴的具体关切和专业知识。每个月，我们都会合作设计一系列安全的“抗生素”和“益生菌”厨房实验--例如，涉及清洁实践和产品、食物准备或采样厨房微生物的可能来源(例如宠物、花园、食品杂货或汽车)。收集的样本将被排序，以供随后的参与性分析和可视化。每个实验的结果和影响将在每月举行的小组会议上讨论，由项目小组成员以及项目合作伙伴和特邀专家促成。该项目涉及与食品标准局的伙伴关系，旨在探讨与家庭微生物组的公共接触对负责或对家庭卫生管理感兴趣的一系列利益攸关方的影响。我们的参与式模式将在一份用户报告中概述，并通过从业人员讲习班加以概述。该项目将提供一个关于厨房做法和微生物学的生物学和质量数据的广泛公共数据库。它将提出一系列学术成果，探讨参与性元基因组学对社会科学和生物科学的变革影响。好的细菌，坏的细菌将展示跨学科研究和参与性方法的潜力，以改变公众、政策制定者和学者对微生物生命的看法、参与和寻求管理的方式。虽然其实质性发现将与了解国内微生物群直接相关，但通过该项目开发的参与式模式对于今后对建筑环境(例如医院、学校、资金、交通基础设施)的其他要素以及人体的亲密空间(如肠道)的微生物群的变革性研究具有巨大的潜力。

Humans are riddled with life. Our bodies, homes and cities support myriad microbial biodiversity. These are generally thought of as disease-causing 'germs' that should be eradicated. But recent developments in metagenomics - the sequencing of genetic material taken from the environment - have begun to reveal the ubiquity and functional importance of the 'human microbiome': the microbial life in, on and around us. Metagenomics helps identify extensive changes in these hitherto invisible worlds with possible implications for human health. Some, like allergy, autoimmunity and antibiotic resistance, have been linked to modern hygiene practices.There is a growing popular and policy interest in the microbiome, and the possibilities of more nuanced or 'probiotic' ways of living with germs. To date however there has been limited public engagement with the science and technology of metagenomics and its potentially transformative means of representing the microbiome. This project will address this gap. Through an in-depth investigation of domestic kitchen practices, it will explore the transformative potential of metagenomics for developing new public understandings of domestic hygiene. The project research design will combine ethnographic methods with laboratory techniques, through a year long collaboration with twelve households from an urban neighbourhood. These households will be asked to survey their domestic microbiome once a month for nine months, undertaking nine metaphorical microbial safaris. The focus of these safaris will emerge from a negotiation informed by our participants' interests, relevant academic literatures and the specific concerns and expertise of our project partners. Each month we will collaboratively design a range of safe, 'antibiotic' and 'probiotic' kitchen experiments - for example involving cleaning practices and products, food preparation or sampling possible sources of kitchen microbes (e.g. pets, gardens, groceries or cars). The gathered samples will be sequenced for subsequent participatory analysis and visualisation. The outcomes and implications of each experiment will be discussed at monthly group meetings, facilitated by members of the project team, alongside project partners and invited experts. This project involves a partnership with the Food Standards Agency and aims to explore the implications of public engagements with the domestic microbiome for a range of stakeholders responsible for or interested in the management of domestic hygiene. Our participatory model will be outlined in a user report and through a practitioners' workshop. The project will deliver an extensive public database of biological and qualitative data on kitchen practices and microbiologies. It will present a range of academic outputs exploring the transformative implications of participatory metagenomics for the social and biological sciences. Good germs, bad germs will demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinary research and participatory approaches to transform how publics, policy makers and academics perceive, engage with and seek to govern microbial life. While its substantive findings will be of direct relevance to understanding the domestic microbiome, the participatory model developed through the project has great potential for future transformative research into the microbiomes of further elements of the built environment (e.g. hospitals, schools, money, transport infrastructure) as well as the intimate spaces of the human body, like the gut.