Did you know that your bacteria are transferred to people around you? In a new Isala daughter project, you and your loved ones get to learn about your intimate microbiome. A unique opportunity to contribute to new insights into the role of social networks on the microbiome! Would you like to help? Read more about the study and how to register here!
For this study, we are looking for central participants that:
- are native Dutch speakers OR can read and understand Dutch (since the informed consent form and questionnaires are all in Dutch)
- aged 18 years or older
- are not pregnant
- can find 2 up to 15 people in their closest circle, including their mother, to join as “co-participants” in this adventure (read on quickly to find out who all of those could be!)
What do we expect from you?
The study will start in April 2025 and is divided into two phases (see figure). In the first phase, both your co-participants and you will collect vaginal swabs at one time point. Girls between the ages of 10 and 17 can also join as co-participants, provided their mothers are also taking part in the study. They will have the option to collect urine samples. Male volunteers can also join if they are partners of the central participant (you) and will collect penis swabs. To investigate whether there is transmission of gut bacteria to the vagina (or vice versa), we will ask you to collect a stool sample. In the second phase, we like to highlight you as the central participant. Then you will collect weekly samples over the course of three weeks, every year for five years. Ideally, this will happen every 12 months, but we will adapt to your availability. Participation for five years is not mandatory; even if you participate for only one or two years, every sample is valuable to us! This is important for closely monitoring changes in your vaginal microbiome and the factors that influence it. Taking your swabs takes about five minutes per sampling point and this can easily be done in the privacy of your bathroom. Finally, we ask you and your co-participants to complete questionnaires to evaluate your general health.
Your samples under the magnifying glass
Once we receive your samples in our Isala lab, our enthusiastic team of researchers will start processing them right away! In this study, we will map both your vaginal microbiome and that of your fellow participants using your vaginal swabs and urine samples, as well as the penile microbiome of your possible male co-participant. By combining all the data with the information from the questionnaires, we hope to better understand the role of social networks on the vaginal microbiome. Of course, as a participant, you will also be kept up to date with your personal results!
A scientific journey with your nearest and dearest
We already know that vaginal bacteria are important for women, but we are still left with an important question: where do they come from? Do daughters inherit vaginal bacteria from their mom at birth? Do women within the same household then have the same vaginal bacteria? And what about the transmission of bacteria between sexually active partners? We could go on and on. All super fascinating questions that have remained unanswered until now… But not for long! Our Isala team is looking for participants, their families, and close friends to take on a super fun challenge together.
Who is Maggie?
We named this study after Margaret Dayhoff (1952-1983). She was a pioneer in bioinformatics, a field of science that links biology and computer science. She began her career as a biochemist and soon became one of the few women to be admitted to a doctoral program, an honor bestowed almost exclusively on men at the time. Her pioneering research led to the identification of several super-important patterns that are still used by scientists today to solve complicated questions. Clearly, Maggie was a real power woman! We would like to honor her by naming this study after her as well as by making use of her discoveries. Thus, with this study, we are looking for puzzle pieces to unravel vaginal mysteries!
An enthusiastic team of researchers!
Behind every study is an enthusiastic team of researchers! Maria Pinedo Bardales is the PhD student leading this Isala daughter project. Of course, she can count on experienced Isala researchers such as Professor Sarah Lebeer (the one and only!) and Dr. Stijn Wittouck (our bioinformatics wizard with a passion for evolution), Dr. Sarah Ahannach and Ines Tuyaerts (both involved since the very beginning of Isala), and Professor Veronique Verhoeven (Isala’s physician). They are strongly supported by Dr. Eline Cauwenberghs, Dr. Camille Allonsius, Nele Van de Vliet, Camille Gepts, and other amazing PhD students, including Isabel Erreygers (experience with mother-daughter samples), Sarah Van den Bosch (who studied the gut-vagina axis in the Rufaida project), Kato Michiels and Brayan Gonzales (with expertise in biostatistics), and Josiane Kenfack (with expertise in community engagement during the Leke project). As usual at Isala: teamwork makes the dream work! We would like to thank FWO and the University of Antwerp for partially sponsoring this study.