Isala is a citizenscience project of the University of Antwerp. Isala's ambitions are big. And important. For the very first time, they want to use state-of-the-art DNA technology to better understand the female microbiome.
Well, your vagina contains millions of bacteria that play a crucial role in your health. They are extremely important in protecting you against infections, bladder infections, STDs, ... and we suspect that they also play a major role in fertility and healthy pregnancies. Only... we don't know for sure. Because up until now, scientific research has often been a man's world and so there has been little interest in the vaginal microbiome. Isala wants to change this.
And that is why we launched an appeal to find 200 women who, in the privacy of their own bathroom, would like to take a number of simple 'swabs' from their vagina, skin and saliva. We looked for 200 women, we found more than 5000. Wow!
Read more at isala.be.
