Reviving Urban Spaces: Microbial Approaches for Sustainable Regeneration

Recent decades transformed cities into growing urban jungles that house more than half of the global population. We have to face the ecological shifts caused by urbanization that affect all living organisms, including us and the microbiota. Its biodiversity has been radically reduced, and its beneficial immunomodulation role towards humans has failed. In the MUSA context, our UniBiome project aims to build microbiome-oriented data to guide an effective urban renovation of Milan. We characterized the microbiome signature of the University of Milano-Bicocca and the Politecnico di Milano. We designed a two-season sampling campaign during each of which we collected more than 500 environmental samples and more than 160 students participated by donating their skin and gut microbiomes. Our DNA-based approach entails amplicon-based sequencing and bioinformatics analysis allowing us to chart the interplay between human and environmental microbiomes, and the related health repercussions.