About
Mahatma Gandhi Medical Advanced Research Institute (MGMARI) is hosting the Indian Microbiome Database (IndMDB), a comprehensive database to document microbiome research in India from the onset to the present day. IndMDB presents the carefully curated publicly available microbiome datasets derived from the Indian population cohort that have been deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). This is the first of a kind initiative to document microbiome research initiatives carried out on Indian individuals. IndMDB provides microbiome medical researchers with a detailed metadata, publication link and SRA links to download the sequenced data. This dataset collection greatly accentuates Indian microbiome research. It spares the medical researchers from the daunting tasks of collecting, processing and consolidation of Indian microbiome datasets from multiple sources.
Disease in Focus
IndMDB presents the data entries categorized based on Disease in Focus. This feature would be of significance to medical researchers to extract the microbiome data related to their research topic of interest. There are 23 different diseases focused on relating to gut microbiome. For instance, within the IndMDB, there are studies focusing on the gut microbiome to understand characteristic microbiota that differentiate.
- The gut of an individual suffering from Parkinson’s disease from the gut of a healthy person.
- The gut of an individual suffering from Diabetes from the gut of a non-diabetic person or
- The gut of a celiac disease patient from that of a healthy individual.
Primary Body Sites
The data entries represent samples collected from various body sites. The primary body site of majority of biosamples were gut with the sample source being feces, colonic biopsy, duodenal biopsy, and small intestinal biopsy. Further to it, biosamples collected from breastmilk, oral cavity, vagina and skin are also listed in the IndMDB database. Biosamples sourced from eye, urinary tract, nose, blood and lungs constitute the rest of body site categories.
Sample Collecting Institutions
Institutions spanning from various locations across India have collected patient samples either in collaboration with foreign institutions or individually to derive the microbiome data. To name a few, IndMDB has documented the microbiome research initiatives of Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore; Bio-Sciences R&D Division, TCS Research; National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), West Bengal and National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune etc.
