Researchers form initiative to coordinate microbial research

A group of scientists recently developed a unified initiative that will support efforts focused on microbial research, according to a press release.

The Unified Microbiome Initiative (UMI) will be managed by 17 U.S. researchers representing a wide range of specialties, including microbiologists, physicists, chemists and physicians, who will coordinate areas of research and propose funding recommendations to federal agencies, private foundations and corporate partners. The UMI’s goal is to better understand microorganisms. The group also will support technological development and commercial applications.

“Microbiology is coming to a point where it’s extraordinarily evident that bacteria, fungi and viruses play a massive role in the development of health and disease in humans, in environmental settings and ecological systems,” Jack Gilbert, PhD, co-founder of the UMI governing board and associate professor of the department of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, said in the release. “We need to unify ourselves across the different disciplines to integrate our research objectives toward a common goal. We can do that in small cohorts at the moment, but the Unified Microbiome Initiative will create the infrastructure to come together under a single umbrella."

The framework of the UMI is modeled after the BRAIN Initiative that was launched by the White House in 2013 to support human brain research. The group will recruit institutions to several consortia based on expertise in a collaborative effort to share infrastructure and resources. Initial areas of research will focus on genetic and chemical analysis of microbes, imaging and visualization technology, computational modeling and informatics and development of model systems, according to the release.

The group plans to develop a baseline funding proposal for participating academic institutions, funding agencies and industrial partners by 2017.