CAMPI
Critical Assessment of Metaproteome Investigation.
About CAMPI
The Critical Assessment of Metaproteome Investigation (CAMPI) is a series of studies that aim to evaluate and improve the state-of-the-art in metaproteomics. These studies have been conducted over the years by a large number of research groups. The goal of CAMPI is to identify the strengths and limitations of current metaproteomics methods, and to develop new strategies and approaches to better understand the proteins present in a given environment. This overview page provides a summary of past and current CAMPI studies, including their findings and contributions to the field of metaproteomics.
CAMPI Webinar 2025
On 15 December 2025, the Metaproteomics Initiative held a webinar to discuss the upcoming CAMPI studies and to provide an overview of the grand challenges in metaproteomics. The webinar featured presentations from leading experts in the field, who discussed the latest developments and the challenges that need to be addressed to advance the field. If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recordings here or on YouTube.
Call for CAMPIs
As announced at the last IMS, 3 new CAMPIs are being launched and require your participation. You can find more information and a link for registration below.
Accurate quantification of peptides and proteins is essential for understanding biological processes, identifying biomarkers, and advancing diagnostics and therapeutic research. This project invites mass spectrometry (MS) analytical laboratories and bioinformatics groups to evaluate the reproducibility and quantification capabilities of advanced MS platforms. Human fecal samples will be processed and spiked with a defined set of peptide standards at varying concentrations to assess response linearity, reproducibility and peptide/protein quantitation. These samples will be analyzed using standardized data-independent acquisition (DIA) protocols across multiple MS platforms. With this project, we aim to harness the capabilities of advanced mass spectrometers for accurate and comprehensive quantification of peptides and proteins, ultimately revealing biological functions within complex biological matrices.
Integrated multi-omic approaches can provide a comprehensive evaluation of microbiomes but the range of omics methods and approaches each give somewhat distinct and sometimes confusing correlations. This project will first take advantage of several existing datasets to benchmark multi-omics pipelines (from preanalytical methods to data generation and processing) and validate the findings on a newly generated and controlled dataset. With this project, we aim to select the most suitable methods for meta-omics, establish best practices for integrated omics, and perform comparative analyses across microbiomes. Scientists from all fields of omics are strongly encouraged to participate.
Only about 50% of genes can be annotated from metagenomics data, with the rest spanning from pure unknown to some degrees of annotations and identifications in samples. This project invites the community to collect, mine, and collate metaproteome datasets for conserved PUFs (identified in more than one sample but with no annotation) in human gut microbiomes. With this project, we aim to devise methods to extract information about conserved PUFs, notably relying on what metaproteomic analyses already provide and extend it with other methods to help characterize these conserved PUFs.
Interested in participating? Register for one or more of the CAMPIs above.
Register nowPrevious and ongoing CAMPIs
The first community-driven, multi-lab comparison in metaproteomics, evaluating the effect of sample preparation, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatic analysis across labs. Variability at the peptide level was predominantly due to wet-lab workflows, while similar functional profiles were obtained across workflows — demonstrating the robustness of present-day metaproteomics research.
Learn more →A comparative assessment of proteome sample stability after sample collection, focusing on the impact of sample treatment and storage conditions (temperature, humidity, pH) on the resulting proteome profile. Participants applied their preferred stabilization methods under a real-world stress-test including uncontrolled-temperature shipment, with the goal of establishing a standard procedure for sample handling in metaproteomics.
Learn more →An assessment of bioinformatic workflows for protein assignment and peptide spectral matching quality, evaluating the impact of key decision points on taxonomic and functional annotation across users with varying levels of expertise and experience in metaproteomics.
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