Human Microbiome Project receives additional $42M in funding from the NIH

In 2007, the National Institutes of Health launched the five-year, $140M Human Microbiome Project to create a resource for researchers interested in using information about the microbiome to improve human health. In a new round of funding announced by the NIH, the Project will receive an additional $42M to expand the exploration of the human microbiome, which encompasses all of the microscopic organisms that live in or on the body, as well as in all DNA.

The additional funding will be provided to the large-scale DNA sequencing centers that participated in the initial phase of the project. The Centers, which are located throughout the country from east to west coasts, will collaborate in order to sequence at least 400 microbial genomes. Another approximately 500 genomes have already been completed or are in sequencing pipelines and supported by individual NIH institutes and internationally funded projects. The goal is to use the data to characterize the microbial communities found in samples collected from healthy volunteers from five specific areas of the body: the digestive tract, the mouth, the skin, the nose and the vagina.

"This effort will accelerate our understanding of how our bodies and microorganisms interact to influence health and disease," says Acting NIH Director Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D. "Examining the differences between the microbiomes of healthy patients and those of patients suffering from a disease promises to change how we diagnose, treat and, ultimately, prevent many health conditions."

The Human Microbiome Project is part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research funded through the NIH Common Fund. The Roadmap is a series of initiatives designed to take advantage of significant opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that no single NIH institute could take on by itself, but which the agency as a whole can address to create the biggest impact possible on medical research.

News Release: NIH expands human microbiome project; funds sequencing center and disease projects    www.bioresearchonline.com    June 24, 2009