The PRIMAL Consortium was founded to gain a better understanding of the interrelated development between microbiota and immune at the very beginning of life, both in animal models and preterm infants. Thus, the consortium strives to make substantial translational progress with regard to diagnosing and preventing harmful disturbances.

The primary goals of the PRIMAL initiative are

• to determine the influence of pro- and antibiotics on the development
  of gut dysbiosis, including colonization with organisms of high epidemic potential and multidrug-resistance
• to develop preclinical in vivo models of neonatal immunity driven by the microbiome, and
• to analyze the impact of external influences in the first year of life (eg. vaccinations, viral infections) on the delicate immune-microbiome interplay.