The microbiome quality control project: baseline study design and future directions

Microbiome research has grown exponentially over the past several years, but studies have been difficult to reproduce across investigations. Relevant variation in measurements between laboratories, from a variety of sources, has not been systematically assessed. This is coupled with a growing concern in the scientific community about the lack of reproducibility in biomedical research. The Microbiome Quality Control project (MBQC) was initiated to identify sources of variation in microbiome studies, to quantify their magnitudes, and to assess the design and utility of different positive and negative control strategies. Here we report on the first MBQC baseline study project and workshop.