EBI Metagenomics becomes MGnify

25 June, 2018 Cambridge – EBI Metagenomics, one of EMBL-EBI’s fastest growing data resources, has changed its name to MGnify, paving the way for a series of updates and improvements set to be implemented over the course of the coming year. These changes reflect the increasingly collaborative nature of the project, both within EMBL and across the scientific community. MGnify will continue to be a free resource for the analysis, archiving and browsing of all types of microbiome-derived sequence data.

In addition to the new name, MGnify has been re-built to enrich search and retrieval of the metadata and analysis results. The brand new website uses a modern web framework and RESTful API, which also provides programmatic access to all of the data contained within the resource.

Metagenomics is one method of studying a microbiome, which consists of sequencing all of the genetic material from all the microorganisms in a particular environment (i.e. soil, water, the human gut. For example, in its simplest form, a metagenomic study might be the direct sequence results of DNA extracted from a bucket of seawater. As such, metagenomics can reveal the previously hidden diversity of microbial communities. The method is widely applied in a range of different fields, including marine ecology, agriculture, food manufacturing, bioenergy and human health.

Over the past two years, EBI Metagenomics (now MGnify) has increased the number of datasets analysed tenfold. In addition to a significant rise in throughput, the underlying analysis pipeline has been overhauled to include new or updated tools, and reference databases. Most notably, the MGnify resources will now assembly both private and public datasets upon request.

As well as the hundreds of small projects, MGnify contains the analysis of many showcase studies, such as Tara Oceans, Ocean Sampling Day, American & British Gut, MetaHIT, HMP and METASOIL.

To find out more, visit the new MGnify website.