Large-scale investigation for antimicrobial activity reveals newly-identified defensive species across the healthy skin microbiome.

The skin microbiome forms a protective barrier to pathogens, including through the production of antimicrobial metabolites. Here, we present EPICHHS, a large and taxonomically diverse skin microbiome culture collection of 968 strains from eight body sites. EPICHHS captures >95% of cumulative species-level abundance across 268 skin metagenomes. It includes isolates present at