On Monday, June 22, Krakow university will join the annual MetaSUB Global City Sampling Day. The action aims to collect swabs with microbiological “fingerprints” of urban space from usable areas in the vicinity of public transport. The national coordinator of the event is the Małopolska Center of Biotechnology.

Global City Sampling Day is an annual project in which, worldwide and on the same day, scientists, researchers, students set off to the urban space to collect environmental samples in the form of swabs taken from places such as public transport stops, ticket machines, trams or the metro, and from the air.

The samples are then sequenced and analyzed to develop a metagenomic map identifying the microorganism community. These data are particularly helpful in understanding human interaction with the microbial world in cities.
Krakow is the first city in Poland to take part in the action alongside dozens of others from around the world, including New York, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo or Buenos Aires.