MetaSUB Consortium

Name

MetaSUB Consortium

Legal name

MetaSUB Consortium

Website

https://metasub.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Genomics Research Services

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Medical Laboratories (621511)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYHLAGANAH

Microbiome & Metagenomics Services

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Life Science Tools & Services (CRO/CDMO/Lab Services)/Specialty Lab Services (Genomics/Proteomics/Cellomics)

SECONDARYHLAAAFAI

Microbiome Analytics, Sequencing & Bioinformatics Platforms

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Biotechnology & Biologics/Microbiome Therapeutics

SECONDARYHLAJABAC

Laboratory-Based Surveillance & Genomic Epidemiology (WGS/NGS)

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Public Health, Government & Regulators/Disease Surveillance, Epidemiology & Outbreak Response

SECONDARYHLAJAIAK

Public Health Genomics & Sequencing (WGS/Metagenomics) Networks

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Public Health, Government & Regulators/Public Health Laboratories & Reference Testing Networks

Keywords

• Metagenomics research
• Urban microbiome mapping
• Citizen science sampling
• Bioinformatics pipelines
• Public health surveillance

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Crowdfunding: Individual donations through Cornell crowdfunding platform used to fund sample processing, laboratory reagents, labor for DNA/RNA extraction, preparation and sequencing, as well as educational outreach and student fellowships.
2. Industry Partner Sponsorships: Corporate sponsors provide funding, products, and services at various sponsorship levels (Silver $5,000, Gold $8,000, Platinum $15,000, Diamond $25,000) for annual conferences and consortium activities.
3. Research Grants: Funded by grants from organizations such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for consortium launching and operations.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

MetaSUB Consortium coordinates the world's largest longitudinal metagenomic sampling effort of urban environments, particularly public transit systems, producing city-scale molecular profiles through standardized shotgun sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. It runs the Global City Sampling Day initiative across 70+ cities on six continents, operates the interactive MetaSUB Map visualization, and provides shared metagenomic analysis pipelines to participating research institutions.

Product overview

MetaSUB Consortium is an international research consortium focused on metagenomics and metadesign of urban biomes. The consortium operates primarily as a research coordination organization rather than a product company. Its core offerings include PathoMap (the foundational NYC subway microbiome mapping project), the Global City Sampling Day initiative (annual coordinated global sampling events), and the MetaSUB Map interactive visualization platform. The consortium also provides standardized bioinformatics analysis pipelines for taxonomic classification, functional analysis, and pathogenicity assessment used across participating city sites worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PathoMap Foundational research project that created a molecular catalog of the New York City subway system through shotgun sequencing of samples from all 468 subway stations, identifying over 600 microbial species and establishing baseline metagenomic profiles for urban transit environments.
• Global City Sampling Day (GCSD) Annual coordinated global sampling event in which volunteers and local research teams collect microbial samples from public transit systems and urban environments across multiple cities simultaneously, generating comparative metagenomic datasets for the consortium.
• MetaSUB Map Interactive web-based visualization platform displaying sample collection locations, taxa metadata, relative abundance by city, and sample-level information including surface types, materials, read counts, and city metadata across MetaSUB's global sampling sites.
• Bioinformatics Analysis Pipeline Standardized computational pipeline for metagenomic analysis including taxa classification, functional and phylogenetic analysis, biosynthetic gene cluster identification, and potential pathogenicity assessment, applied across all consortium city sites.

Quantifiable outcome

• Catalogued 600+ microbial species from 468 NYC subway stations
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• IlluminacoreTechnology or IntegrationDiamond-level sponsor and sequencing technology provider. Major supporter of annual conferences and consortium activities.
• New York Genome CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost venue for inaugural 2015 conference and collaborative research partner in genomic analysis.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration partner for metagenomics standards development and quality control.

Scale indicators5 records

Direct peers

• CosmosID: Commercial metagenomics analysis platform providing taxonomic classification and antimicrobial resistance profiling. Comparable in technology stack (MetaSUB uses CosmosID as a partner) and target market of microbiome researchers and public-health labs.
• Global Virome Project: International consortium aimed at detecting and characterizing viral threats to anticipate pandemics. Comparable as a globally coordinated surveillance-and-discovery genomics initiative with public-health orientation.
• Earth Microbiome Project: Global crowdsourced metagenomics initiative sampling microbial communities across environments worldwide. Highly comparable to MetaSUB in mission (cataloguing microbiomes at planetary scale), methodology (shotgun sequencing, standardized protocols), and consortium model.
• One Codex: Metagenomic classification and analysis platform for clinical and research microbiomics. Comparable as a sequencing-based microbiome analytics platform serving public-health and infectious-disease applications, and a current MetaSUB partner.
• American Gut Project: Citizen-science microbiome research initiative crowdsourcing samples from individuals. Directly comparable in its community-led GTM motion, open data ethos, and use of standardized sequencing and metadata protocols.
• Tara Oceans: International scientific expedition sampling plankton and microbial ecosystems across the world's oceans. Comparable as a globally coordinated, multi-continent metagenomics consortium producing open-access ecological genomic data.
• NIH Human Microbiome Project: Federally funded multi-site initiative to characterize human and environmental microbiomes using metagenomic sequencing. Comparable in being a large-scale, multi-site reference microbiome program with standardized protocols and open data.

Others

• QIAGEN: Major sample-preparation and nucleic-acid extraction technology provider. Comparable as a MetaSUB partner that supplies laboratory workflows; adjacent rather than competitive, supplying the consumables and instruments underpinning metagenomics research.
• Zymo Research: Molecular biology reagents and sample-processing provider serving microbiome researchers. Comparable as a MetaSUB partner supplying DNA/RNA extraction and processing reagents; adjacent ecosystem participant rather than a research consortium.

Broad incumbents

• Illumina: Dominant sequencing-technology platform provider and MetaSUB's Diamond sponsor. Comparable as the underlying technology backbone for nearly all consortium sequencing; broadly incumbent rather than a direct research-output competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/metasub
• GitHubgithub.com/MetaSUB
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCxjLXdSd6CqXM1kubIZtBYg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/metasubconsortium

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about MetaSUB Consortium