Seed Health and The Two Frontiers Project launched The Resilient Soils Project, a community science initiative investigating how soil microbes adapt to chemical contamination.
The project invites individuals and communities to collect soil samples from contaminated or suspected contamination sites, including residential areas, farmland, and regions with legacy industrial activity. Samples will undergo metagenomic sequencing to identify microbial traits associated with long-term chemical exposure.
The focus is on environments shaped by PFAS, heavy metals, petroleum, and agricultural chemicals. These “forever chemicals” accumulate in soil and water with no clear removal pathway.
Krista Ryon, genomics researcher and co-founder of Two Frontiers Project, said microbes under sustained chemical pressure can evolve metabolic pathways capable of transforming or breaking down contaminants. “Most approaches to contamination rely on removal, containment, or chemical treatment—methods that can be costly, disruptive, and difficult to scale.”
Findings will contribute to the Two Frontiers Project’s Living Database, an open-access archive providing researchers with DNA sequencing data and cultured samples from chemically impacted environments.
Previous community science initiatives from Seed and Two Frontiers have generated over 1,000 environmental data points, uncovering microbial communities with potential applications in carbon capture and coral reef resilience.
Cathrin Bowtell, CEO of Seed Health, said the project extends the company’s work in human health to planetary health. “The future of human and planetary health are deeply connected—and microbes sit at the center of both.”
The initiative is led by Two Frontiers Project and supported by SeedLabs, Seed Health’s environmental research division.
