![]() Human microbiome science: vision for the future, Bethesda, MD, July 2. Understanding the microbial side of ourselves may therefore be critically important for understanding human biology, including drug responses . Since the inception of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) in 2. Together, the HMP healthy cohort study . This work has set the stage for rapid advances, some with high potential for translational studies, in understanding the mechanisms governing the similarities and differences in the microbes we share, their association with diseases, but more importantly, the functional roles microbiota play in health and disease. Meeting goals and objectives. To understand the current state of human microbiome research, and to identify key areas for progress going forward, we held a conference in Bethesda, MD from July 2. This conference, which was supported in part from a grant by NIH to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, together with corporate sponsors including Roche, Qiagen, Illumina, Life Technologies, Mo. Bio, Metabolon, and the Bio. The human microbiome: ecosystem resilience and health. The gut microbiome has been proposed to play a causal role in obesity. Here, we review the historical context for this hypothesis, highlight recent key findings. The infant microbiome is dynamic . New evidence shows that choosing a plant-based diet vs. Website of the laboratory of David Relman at Stanford University. Participate in an Ecological Study of the Human Microbiome! ![]() Med Central journal Microbiome, sought to provide an overview of cutting- edge work in NIH- supported microbiome research, and to identify obstacles as well as opportunities for progress in this challenging field of research. The meeting was organized by a trans- NIH working group, including 2. NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices, together with four scientific advisory members funded by the Human Microbiome Project. ![]() The meeting was attended by 2. NIH, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), US Army, National Science Foundation (NSF), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and involved 3. The broad expertise of the organizing committee and the participants underscores the way in which microbes pervade the human body and our environment, and microbiome research may soon pervade the biomedical research enterprise. Over the course of this 3- day meeting, there were presentations and discussions aimed towards: Recognizing that the study of the human microbiome, in disease and in health, is of relevance to the missions of all NIH Institutes and Centers; Increasing awareness across all NIH Institutes and Centers of gaps, needs, and challenges faced by the broad microbiome research community to drive future research and investments; Facilitating coordination between the NIH Institutes and Centers to promote coherent oversight for policies and approaches that will maximally benefit microbiome- related biomedical research; Identifying areas where common resources or partnerships would benefit microbiome- related biomedical research; Exploring how NIH and other government funding agencies could collaborate to integrate the microbiome into studies of human health and more broadly into studies of human interactions with their physical and microbial environment; Fostering understanding of the current state of microbiome research, and shaping an overall vision for future directions of the field over the next 1. Overview: the human microbiome project. In the first session Dr. ![]() Diet and the development of the human intestinal microbiome. A daily digest of scientific microbiome papers, by your Microbe Manager Elisabeth Bik, Science Editor at uBiome.com. Twitter: @microbiomdigest. Including the microbiome as part of an individual is, some researchers said, a new way to look at human beings. It was a daunting task, though, to investigate the normal human microbiome. Owen White (University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA) (Figure 1. A) set the stage for the conference, noting that the meeting was a unique opportunity for microbiome researchers both to reflect on past successes and to define the direction that the field could take going forward. His introduction was followed by a presentation by Dr. Francis Collins (Director of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA) (Figure 1. ![]() B), who opened with a historical perspective of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP). He presented an overview of how the microbiome is uniquely positioned to enhance the mission of the NIH because of the many associations between the state of the microbiome and a wide range of diseases from gastrointestinal diseases and conditions, to cancer and even mental illnesses. Eric Green (Director of National Human Genome Research Institute, NHGRI) (Figure 1. C) followed with a report on the state and the many accomplishments of the HMP. The HMP aimed to survey the microbiome in humans through taxonomic and metagenomic analyses. He highlighted the central healthy cohort of volunteers who were intensively sampled, and several demonstration projects that focused on diseases at sites such as the GI track, the skin or the urogenital track. These projects generated over 3. Tbp of data and 8 million unique microbial genes were catalogued. These datasets (sequence data, strains, clinical phenotypes, nucleic acid extracts, and even cell lines) are publicly available through repositories and coordinated through a Data Analysis and Coordination Center (DACC) hosted at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine . Overall, the HMP has led to over 3. The HMP has supported the development of new bioinformatics and technological tools, which altogether facilitate the study of the human microbiome for the scientific community. Human microbiome studies. Owen White (A), one of the organizers of the meeting introduced Dr. Francis Collins (B), Director of the National Institutes of Health, who gave an historical perspective on the Human Microbiome Project. Eric Green (C), Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute discussed the many successes of the Human Microbiome Project. Jesse Goodman (D), Chief Scientist at the US Food and Drug Administration discussed the regulatory aspects concerning the microbiome, including the challenges associated with fecal transplants. The microbiome and cancer. Schwabe 1, Christian Jobin 2. Dethlefsen, L., McFall-Ngai, M. NIH's human microbiome project; links to obesity, cancer. ![]() Dr. David Relman (Stanford University) (Figure 2. A) gave the first of three keynote addresses on . He presented recent work from his laboratory on the profound effects of antibiotics in reshaping the human microbiome, and on the value of applying (and perhaps developing) ecological theory for understanding these complex ecosystems and their contributions to human biology . In particular, he raised the issue of resilience, an ecological concept that refers to the amount of disturbance that a system can withstand without changing its self- organizing processes or services . He emphasized the need for better tools to define resilience and evaluate the stability of, and harm to human- associated microbial communities. Figure 2. Keynote speakers. ![]() Jonathan Braun, University of California Los Angeles, (A) highlighted the challenges in translating microbiome sciences. David Relman, Stanford University, (B) discussed the larger role the human microbiome plays in both health and disease. Maria Dominguez- Bello, New York University, (C) discussed aspects of the modern versus ancestral microbiome. Dr. Rosamond Rhodes (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York) discussed the ethical, legal, and social implications surrounding the study of the human microbiome. In particular, she spoke on issues related to subject identification from knowledge of microbiome sequence data - issues that are in so many ways analogous to those faced by scientists studying the human genome sequence. These issues impact the way microbiome science is and will be performed in the future, especially biobanking. Importantly, they highlight the need to better protect the privacy of subjects involved in microbiome research. The session was closed by Dr. Robbie Barbero, Office of Science and Technology Policy, (OSTP), who described the role of OSTP in supporting cross- agency collaboration to meet . He described several successful Grand Challenges to date, and asked the microbiome community to consider whether a microbiome- focused Grand Challenge might be appropriate at this point in time, especially given the pervasive impact of microbes in the environment and in our bodies. Basic biology of the microbiome. This session consisted of three exciting talks describing what we know about how the microbiome develops and changes over time, elaborating on the theme developed earlier by Dr. Ruth Ley (Cornell University) described the changes in the gut microbiota throughout pregnancy, as well as those experienced by newborns in the first few years of life . She presented exciting new work that aims at linking host genetic variations and the composition of the human microbiome. For example, in a cohort of more than 1,0. Bacteria and Archaea were identified. Understanding the contribution of human genetic varibility in shaping the composition of the human microbiome will govern the way we will be able to manipulate these microbial communities to maintain or restore health and cure diseases. Dr. Jacques Ravel (Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine) discussed the ecological principles that govern the dynamics of the human microbiome (resilience, resistance and persistence) and how one can gain better understanding of these dynamic systems using descriptive microbial community compositional surveys . Each of these analyses often reveals different intrinsic dynamic patterns when applied to the same community. His presentation stressed the pitfalls that could result from a priori application of principles that might govern microbial community at a given body site to another site. Discussing the vaginal microbiota he introduced a new concept that the intensity of dynamic changes (that is, frequency and duration of change in microbiota composition) could represent an increased risk for acquisition and transmission of sexually transmitted infections. Frederic Bushman (University of Pennsylvania) then spoke about his work on understanding the dynamics of the human gut virome (the set of viruses that targets bacteria and humans). Although immense progress has been made in understanding the bacteria that inhabit the human body, especially through 1. S r. RNA gene sequencing and reference genome approaches, studies of the human virome have lagged behind.
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