Together for One Health – How BBMRI.at and BBMRI-ERIC connect human, animal, and environmental health
November 3rd was One Health Day, highlighting the vital links between human, animal, and environmental health. BBMRI.at showcased onging work within the biobanking and biomolecular resources community as part of the multimedia story by BBMRI-ERIC on One Health-related activities. Examples from BBMRI.at include microbiome-based therapies for inflammatory bowel diseases and the work at VetBiobank and VetMeduni (both Vienna).
One Health Day
Every year the One Health Day draws attention to the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. Coordinated by the One Health Commission, the One Health Initiative, and the One Health Platform Foundation, the campaign emphasizes that complex health challenges require collaboration across disciplines.
At BBMRI.at, researchers and biobanks work together on One Health-related topics to tackle these challenges affecting human, animal and environmental health.
Rebalancing gut health: Microbiome research for IBD therapy at Med Uni Graz
At the Medical University of Graz, home of BBMRI.at, researchers are exploring microbiome-based therapies to restore gut balance in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD results from a complex interplay of genetic predispositions, environmental factors, and alterations in the gut microbiome.
Using faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) — transferring gut microbes from healthy donors — the team has achieved promising results in treating severe cases of ulcerative colitis (one form of IBD) that no longer respond to standard therapies.
Behind this research lies a comprehensive biorepository of stool samples, biopsies, plasma, and other materials from donors and recipients. These samples enable deep insights into how microbiome diversity supports recovery and may lead to the next-generation biotherapeutics.
The project reflects One Health thinking in practice: understanding human health through the lens of microbial ecosystems shared across humans, animals, and the environment.
Explore details in research articles and papers.
VetBiobank – Resources to link animal and human health
The VetBiobank is a professional infrastructure at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna) and a BBMRI.at consortium partner since 2013.
The VetBiobank professionally collects, processes, and stores biological samples from animals, following the same ISO/CEN quality standards used in human biobanking. Its collections — including tumour and control tissues, histological sections, and digital slides — are powerful resources for comparative research between animal and human diseases.
Embedded in VetCore, a cross-disciplinary facility combining biobanking, imaging, and omics technologies, the VetBiobank supports researchers. One Health-related research at Vetmeduni includes e.g. antimicrobial resistance and One Health genetics.
By connecting veterinary and human research infrastructures, VetBiobank and BBMRI.at together aim to strengthen comparative medicine to advance human and animal health by examining the similarities and differences in diseases across species, a key element of One Health science.
Driving One Health together
From microbiome research for new therapies to veterinary biobanking, BBMRI.at’s activities demonstrate how biobanking research infrastructures enable shared progress.
Through BBMRI-ERIC’s European network, we connect researchers, clinicians, and veterinarians to advance the One Health vision. 💚
Biospecimens are used for integrative omics analyses but also for recultivation of “beneficial microbes” associated with therapy response. These can be further exploited and developed to novel “biotherapies” to treat UC in the future. Provided by K. Filek and produced with Biorender.