PRESS RELEASE

2000 students from all around Spain, in their third year of secondary education, are taking part in the pioneering project ‘Saca La Lengua’, or “Stick out your tongue"



The Centre for Genomic Regulation and the “la Caixa” Foundation are carrying out the first study into the mouth’s microbiome and its possible relationship with lifestyle

• Javier Bertolín, Director of the Commerce and Education Area of “la Caixa” Foundation, Luis Serrano, director of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and Toni Gabaldón, head of the Comparative Genomics group at the CRG, have presented the pioneering citizen participation project ‘Stick out your Tongue’ in CosmoCaixa.

• The study involves a significant number of samples aimed at determining the variety of bacteria and fungi present in the mouth’s microbiome and finding out if this bears any relation to environmental characteristics or lifestyle.

• 2000 students in their 3rd year of ESO from 40 schools around Spain are taking part in the collection of saliva samples that will be sequenced to look for fragments of DNA common in bacteria and fungi.

• University students and the general public can also get involved in the second phase, taking part in the bioinformatic and statistical data analysis.

This morning, Javier Bertolín, Director of the Commerce and Education Area of “la Caixa” Foundation, Luis Serrano, director of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and Toni Gabaldón, head of the Comparative Genomics group at the CRG, presented the pioneering project involving public participation ‘Stick out your Tongue' in CosmoCaixa. This is a scientific initiative promoted by the Centre for Genomic Regulation and the “la Caixa” Foundation that is aimed at discovering the variety of micro-organisms that live in our mouths, particularly the bacteria and fungi, and determining if this variety is related to environmental characteristics and/or lifestyle.

“It is the first time that the CRG has undertaken a citizen science project and we are certain that the contributions by the students and society in general will be the key for the success of the project”, affirms Luis Serrano, director of the Centre for Genomic Regulation.

Recent scientific studies have highlighted the importance of the set of micro-organisms that live in our bodies, the human microbiome, both for health and illness. There are currently several important scientific projects devoted to characterising the bacteria present in our microbiome but studies on the diversity of fungi are very scarce.

We live with other organisms but, do we know them?

Human beings co-exist with many micro-organisms, some of which are inside us, as guests in our bodies. The majority are bacteria and there are already several scientific projects devoted to studying them. In contrast, the various fungi present in this group of micro-organisms has still not been looked at in depth.

In reality, we humans have more bacteria in our bodies than cells. It is logical that these micro-organisms can have an enormous influence on us, be that protecting us from certain illnesses or helping our digestion, as well as causing some illnesses and directing our preferences, like through taste. Scientists are beginning to look into this and there are already therapies that consist of transplanting the faecal microbiome for treating intestinal infections.

“The aim of the ‘Saca la Lengua' project is to identify the variety of bacteria and fungi present in the microbiome of our mouths and find out if this variation is conditioned by environmental characteristics and, in the long term, assess whether it has a relationship with disease”, explains Toni Gabaldón, head of the Comparative Genomics group at the CRG and scientific coordinator of the project. Dr Gabaldón adds: “Detecting and studying the fungi present in the human mouth’s microbiome is, at a scientific level, one of the most important challenges of the project. So far, there has been no study on this subject with a significant sample size and we hope, with the help of the general public, to be the first to accomplish this.”
 
For this reason, the 2000 saliva samples will be sequenced in order to find fragments of DNA that are common in bacteria and fungi and which will enable us identify them. More than 250 million bases will be sequenced thanks to a DNA sequencer that will be looking only for fragments of bacteria and fungi and, in no case, will analyse the human genomes that may be contained in the samples.

At the same time, the study will include a set of complementary data on the habits, environmental characteristics and lifestyle of the participants, for which the collaboration and know-how of the researchers at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) has been crucial.



Science gets out of the lab: participatory science

‘Saca la Lengua' is a participatory project that allows scientists to work side-by-side with society. This new way to do science provides novel points of views and gives the scientists access to the freshness, creativity and imagination of the people on the street. In this way they are able to hear new and different perspectives on their projects to those that they are accustomed to. This is real “thinking outside the box”.

Since it started, 40 schools and institutes from all around Spain have been involved in the project. 2000 secondary school students will take part in the collection of information by preparing a saliva sample to be analysed.

Additionally, in this first phase, anyone can help formulate the initial working hypothesis. Through the project's website (www.sacalalengua.org), you will be able to propose other ideas and variables that could be incorporated into the initial hypothesis for the scientific project.

Once the samples have been sequenced, the resulting data will be released for the bioinformatic and statistical analysis. To carry this out, resources will be made available to the participants, be they secondary school kids, university students or even members of the general public who want to get involved in the world of bioinformatics.


The centre will set various challenges through a contest that will be launched in September 2015. It is expected that the participants will resolve the issues until they manage to identify all the different bacteria and fungi present in the samples. Then they can cross-check this information with the environmental data from the individual participants and draw some interesting conclusions. The most efficient, audacious and scientifically correct proposals will be rewarded.

The Director of the Commerce and Education Area of “la Caixa” Foundation, Javier Bertolín, highlighted certain educational aspects of the project: “The initiative to involve young people in this scientific project is the result of the more than 40 years of experience that the ”la Caixa" Foundation has in the field of education. One of the objectives of eduCaixa, is to create educational systems aimed at young people, to inspire a change in society that stimulates new ways of thinking and acting, allowing the next generations to deploy their talents and potential in the service of a productive and creative profession".

A logistical challenge involving 7000 kilometres and 2000 samples
In order for the project to include representative data and have good quality samples, one of the main challenges for the success of the project are the general logistics. 
The teachers and students who are participating in the first phase of the project, the sample collection, will receive training in how to do this as well as receive a visit from a scientist from the Centre for Genomic Regulation, who will go to see all the educational centres involved in the project. A van with a centrifuge will be on hand to process the samples, and this will have an on-board freezer to preserve them at -20ºC. In addition, the researcher will evaluate the students and ensure that the collection of samples goes to plan. The ‘Saca la Lengua' van will travel more than 7000 km throughout Spain and, taking advantage of the fact that it will visit 40 schools across the land, the researcher will give a talk in each centre on the human microbiome and its biological impact on health.

40 institutes with varied characteristics have been selected to take part in ‘Saca la Lengua'. Not only are they spread across the country, but the centres have been chosen to make sure they represent its different geographic, social and ecological realities. The 40 centres taking part in the kick-off of the project are in Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Malaga, Madrid, Murcia, Pontevedra, Seville, Valencia, Biscay, and Zaragoza.

The ‘Saca la Lengua' project is an initiative of the Centre for Genomic Regulation and the “la Caixa” Foundation, with the participation of the Centre for Research into Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), the support of the 'Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013-2017' programme (SEV-2012-02-08) of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and contributions by the company Illumina. The scientific and technical services of the CRG, which will make this project possible, are co-financed by the European Union through the strategic funds for regional development (ERDF).

eduCaixa, a world of educational activities

eduCaixa is a programme addressed at young people aged 3 to 18, teachers, and parents’ associations, and grew out of the experience and commitment that “la Caixa” has always had to the world of education. In 2014 the programme reached more than 2,000,000 students and teachers in schools all across Spain, from nearly 7,750 educational centres.

Under this premise, the project includes teaching materials to complement the classroom tasks carried out by teachers and students. In this way, it boosts the formal education in schools with projects and pedagogical resources on social, cultural, scientific and environmental topics.




About the Centre for Genomic Regulation

The CRG is an international biomedical research institute of excellence whose mission is to discover and advance knowledge for the benefit of society, public health and economic prosperity.


The CRG believes that the medicine of the future depends on the ground-breaking science of today. This requires an interdisciplinary scientific team focused on understanding the complexity of life from the genome to the cell to a whole organism and its interaction with the environment, offering an integrated view of genetic diseases.


The combination of the know-how of top scientists from across the globe and the availability of cutting-edge equipment make the CRG a unique centre with a high level of scientific production in an international context and which has the best services scientific and technical services for research.


One of the backbones of the CRG's activity is its commitment to returning knowledge to society, one of its aims being to communicate and establish a dialogue with society, educating the public and responding to their needs. For this reason it has set up the Science and Society programme that brings together various science outreach and communication activities to communicate the research taking place at the centre, to promote scientific vocation in young people, and boost scientific literacy in the general public.

For more information on the project and interviews:
Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)
Press officer – Laia Cendrós
Tel. +34 93 316 0237