Program InitiativesDeveloping a reference set of microbial genome sequences and preliminary characterization of the human microbiome
Relationship between disease and changes in the human microbiomeThe second initiative includes a set of demonstration projects to determine the relationship between human health and changes in the human microbiome. The initiative will be implemented by investigator-initiated projects that can leverage the advances of the Human Microbiome Project to examine the relationship between changes in the human microbiome and diseases of interest.
Development of new technologiesTaking full advantage of the decreased cost of sequencing to improve our knowledge of the human microbiome will require advances in microbial genomics technologies. The ability to generate whole genome sequences is currently limited to the relatively small class of microbes that can be cultured. In order to maximize the number of sequences available in the reference set, new techniques must be developed to culture or otherwise isolate for analysis currently unculturable organisms. In the long-term, methods for sequencing individual microbes or otherwise analyzing all of the members of complex populations will substantively advance this field. Development of new tools for computational analysisThe data sets produced by metagenomic sequencing and related components will be very large and complex, requiring novel analytical tools for distilling useful information from vast amounts of sequence data, functional genomic data and subject metadata. In addition, if next generation sequencing platforms are used, they will produce large quantifies of sequence data that will need new analysis methods. Establishing a Data Analysis and Coordinating Center (DACC)The DACC will be a resource to find information about the project, along with its results and conclusions. Since the HMP, as a community resource project, is committed to rapid data release, the DACC will prove invaluable for coordination of data access and analysis. The DACC will have several specific functions:
Establishing a resource repositoryA central repository is needed to store materials and reagents generated under the HMP including:
The repository will make resources widely available to the scientific community at a reasonable cost and provide a newsletter to inform sample donors and interested members of the lay public about on-going project progress. Ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of HMP researchThe ethical, legal and social implications of HMP research will be studied including:
|
This page last reviewed: December 16, 2008