The phrase "as their backbone" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe something that serves as a fundamental support or essential component for a group, organization, or system.
Example: "The dedicated volunteers serve as their backbone, providing essential support to the community initiatives."
Alternatives: "as their foundation" or "as their core support".
The Jets advanced to two straight A.F.C. title games with defense and running as their backbone, including a big playoff upset of the Patriots in the 2010 season.
With young activists as their backbone, Kurds in Syria have formed their own opposition groups and confronted the security forces in the streets.
This would save space for other traffic — and money for both Verizon and Google, as their backbone bills decline (wishful thinking, but theoretically possible).
There already exist various operational intelligent systems in different domains like defense, healthcare, energy and disaster management that have been developed by employing human-centric sensing as their backbone.
Funny, but this is a serious problem for a growing number of services that are built using Twitter as their backbone.
This poses a series of complicated problems for the processed food industry including consumer products like muesli bars, breads, cakes, pies, sauces and beverages (and many more) that rely upon Aussie honey as their backbone ingredient.
Potent plasmid DNA vaccine vectors are necessary in vaccine regiments because they elicit no immune responses against their backbone, as can be the case with viral vectors.
If, as Kanye has suggested, his new album uses those Madlib beats as their sonic backbone, the result might be something akin to Let's Dance.
In this study, 73%% of patients overall received mFOLFOX6 and 27%% received FOLFIRI as their chemotherapy backbone.
The aniline oligomers can be positioned within the molecular structure of other polymers, thus painter acting with the side groups of the main polymer or acting as a comonomer in their backbone.
But what's most riveting about Hannah and her friends is not their wisdom, their righteousness or their backbone — as we might imagine would be the antidote to the frothy pap of other girlie comedies — but their confusion, their vulnerability and their ambivalence.
