Maldibank

A Comprehensive Solution to Microbial Challenges In an era marked by pressing environmental and health challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, global epidemics, and food security, understanding and leveraging the power of microbes is critical. Microbes, fundamental to the biosphere, impact everything from ecosystem dynamics to human health. However, their vast diversity remains largely underestimated. To harness this potential, precise identification of microorganisms is crucial, especially given their varied implications across different sectors. Over the past 15 years, MALDI-TOF (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight) mass spectrometry (MS) has revolutionized microbial identification in fields such as clinical microbiology, food safety, environmental monitoring, and sustainable agriculture. Despite its transformative potential, MALDI-TOF MS technology has been underutilized outside clinical microbiology. MALDIBANK emerges as a groundbreaking initiative to extend the reach of this technology, providing innovative solutions for understanding and utilizing microbial diversity for global problem-solving.
The project’s consortium is composed by 24 partners, with valuable experience in a cross-border collaborative and multidisciplinary approach in microbial studies: MIRRI-ERIC (Project Coordinator, PT), INSTRUCT-ERIC (UK), EMBRC-ERIC (FR), ELIXIR (DE), UVEG-CECT (ES), ULPGC-BEA (ES), Sciensano (BE), INRAE (FR), IP (FR), UL-MSCL (LV), UMinho-MUM (PT), CEITEC (CZ), NHRF (EL), CIIMAR (PT), BioData.pt (PT), INESC-ID (PT), SU (FR), UNITO (IT), WI-KNAW (NL), BioAware (BE), Clover BioSoft (ES), BioMérieux (FR), SPI (PT), SIB (CH).