Microbes exist in various environmental habitats ranging from the ecological environments (soil, ocean, air etc.) to the human body, animals, and fermented foods, and play an essential role in sustaining ecosystems and supporting our lives. Chung-Ang University's Environmental Microbiology Laboratory (EMBL) has been constantly interested in seeking answers to questions on the microbiomes of environmental ecosystems such as “Who (what kind of microbes play a key role?)”, “What (what role do they play?)”, “How (how do they function?)”, “Why”, “Where”, and “When”.

In order to uncover the ecological secrets presented above for various microbiomes in different environments, EMBL conducts multi-metaomics analyses including (meta)genomics, (meta)transcriptomics, (meta)proteomics, metabolomics and various statistical analyses.

EMBL is in using

• an omics data production system (Nanopore MINION)
• a bioinformatic analysis (workstation) system
• metabolome analysis equipment (HPLC, GC-MS, LC-Q-TOF/MS)
• Separation and culture system for microbes (anaerobic FACS, anaerobic chamber, anaerobic incubators)
• a real time-PCR machine
• other molecular biological analysis equipment

EMBL is conducting research on three main topics.

• Studies on Interactions between algae and cyanobacteria and symbiotic bacteria.
• Analysis of key metabolic microbes in human gut and their associations with human diseases and health.
• Studies on the characterization of food microbiome based on multi-metaomics analysis