Elimination of “kitome” and “splashome” contamination results in lack of detection of a unique placental microbiome

We identified the problem of well-to-well contamination ("splashome") as an additional source of error in microbiome studies of low biomass samples and found a method of eliminating it. Once "kitome" and "splashome" contaminants were eliminated, we were unable to identify a unique placental microbiome.