Scientists Urge National Initiative on Microbiomes
By CARL ZIMMER OCT. 28, 2015
Scores of leading scientists on Wednesday urged the creation of a major initiative to better understand the microbial communities critical to both human health and every ecosystem.
In two papers published simultaneously in the journals
Science and
Nature, the scientists called for a government-led effort akin to the
Brain Initiative, a monumental multiyear project intended to develop new technologies to understand the human brain.
“This is the beginning of the shot to the moon,” said Jeffery F. Miller, the director of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a co-author of the Science paper. “There is so much to learn, and so many benefits of learning it.”
The White House is already considering increasing its support of research into the workings of these microbial communities, called microbiomes. The new papers “are very thoughtful and have a lot to tell us,” said Jo Handelsman, the associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and herself a microbiologist.
As to whether there will be a national microbiome initiative, she said, “We don’t have anything to announce today.”
Microbiomes have become the focus of intense study and public interest. The
trillions of microbes that live inside the human body, for example, play important roles in health, from fighting diseases to maintaining a balanced immune system.
