Characterization of Hospital and Patients’ Microbiome Biodiversity for Nano-detectors Development and Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring

Since people live in places populated by microbes, there is a significant interconnection between human and environmental microbiota. Indeed, humans scatter their microorganisms through skin, feces, and other body fluids, while they constantly run into microbes through air, surfaces, water, and foods. Due to this interconnection, it is important to understand the biodiversity of urban microbiota, particularly in places where there is a specific composition of microbial communities created by selective pressure, such as hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Indeed, these are characterized by over-cleaning methods and the overuse and misuse of antimicrobial agents. Moreover, healthcare facilities are crowded environments, frequented by both healthy and sick individuals. This combination creates a unique built environment microbiota, distinguished by antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) organisms, pathogens, and harmless common species. As part of the ANTHEM project, the presented study aims to characterize the hospital’s microbiome and to reduce and monitor the spread of AMR bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in hospital settings. Based on our microbiome characterization, the long-term aim of the project is to build fast and easy-to-use technological devices grounded on biomolecular techniques. To address these issues, we collected samples and data from patients, and from different environmental sites of the pre-admission ward at different times of the day. Specifically, by characterizing hospital microbial communities using DNA sequencing and bioinformatics approaches, we aim to identify a set of pathogens that are easily exchanged between patients and the environment, and to monitor the spread of AMR bacteria.