Professor of Human Molecular Genetics at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dr. Maude Phipps, was awarded microbiome research support in sample collection and analysis. The grant from uBiome’s Microbiome Grant Initiative will allow the professor and her team to study the association of health, diet and cultural practices in Southeast Asian hunter-gatherers and indigenous tribes.
“My team and I are honored to receive this award and to collaborate with uBiome. We have engaged three tribes who have consented to come on board and work with us,”shared Phipps.
Microbiome research in indigenous communities is understudied says Phipps and the discoveries to be made will be beneficial to the global community. The aim of this study is to characterise the microbiomes of the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia known as Orang Asli, and the Negrito hunter-gatherers, and explore the relationship of the microbiome to diet and lifestyle practices. Being the first study of its kind, researchers hope this investigation into communities who largely depend on the forest for resources, will advance elucidation of mechanisms involved in health, disease and adaptation.
Data collected from the study will include microbiome composition from uBiome’s patented kits, as well as body measurements, diet, olfactory features and cardiometabolic risk indicators such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
“Dr. Phipps and her team are contributing to expanding uBiome’s microbiome database, the largest in the world, to include a greater diversity,” said uBiome co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jessica Richman. “uBiome is proud to support this novel investigation of underrepresented southeastern Asian indigenous populations,” she added.
uBiome was founded in 2012. It has awarded millions of dollars in grant initiative research to hundreds of global “investigators” at renowned academic institutions and not-for-profit research organisations, including Harvard University, Stanford University, etc. Visit www.monash.edu.my for information on programmes at Monash University Malaysia.
