The NIH Human Microbiome Project

  1. The NIH HMP Working Group1,
  2. Jane Peterson2,3,
  3. Susan Garges3,
  4. Maria Giovanni4,
  5. Pamela McInnes5,
  6. Lu Wang3,
  7. Jeffery A. Schloss3,
  8. Vivien Bonazzi3,
  9. Jean E. McEwen3,
  10. Kris A. Wetterstrand3,
  11. Carolyn Deal4,
  12. Carl C. Baker6,
  13. Valentina Di Francesco4,
  14. T. Kevin Howcroft7,
  15. Robert W. Karp8,
  16. R. Dwayne Lunsford5,
  17. Christopher R. Wellington3,
  18. Tsegahiwot Belachew3,
  19. Michael Wright4,
  20. Christina Giblin4,
  21. Hagit David4,
  22. Melody Mills4,
  23. Rachelle Salomon4,
  24. Christopher Mullins8,
  25. Beena Akolkar8,
  26. Lisa Begg9,
  27. Cindy Davis7,
  28. Lindsey Grandison10,
  29. Michael Humble11,
  30. Jag Khalsa12,
  31. A. Roger Little13,
  32. Hannah Peavy14,
  33. Carol Pontzer15,
  34. Matthew Portnoy16,
  35. Michael H. Sayre17,
  36. Pamela Starke-Reed5,
  37. Samir Zakhari10,
  38. Jennifer Read18,
  39. Bracie Watson19 and
  40. Mark Guyer3
  1. 3 National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  2. 4 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  3. 5 National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  4. 6 National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  5. 7 National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  6. 8 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  7. 9 Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  8. 10 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  9. 11 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  10. 12 National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  11. 13 National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  12. 14 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  13. 15 National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  14. 16 National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  15. 17 National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  16. 18 National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA;
  17. 19 National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA

    Abstract

    The Human Microbiome Project (HMP), funded as an initiative of the NIH Roadmap for Biomedical Research (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov), is a multi-component community resource. The goals of the HMP are: (1) to take advantage of new, high-throughput technologies to characterize the human microbiome more fully by studying samples from multiple body sites from each of at least 250 “normal” volunteers; (2) to determine whether there are associations between changes in the microbiome and health/disease by studying several different medical conditions; and (3) to provide both a standardized data resource and new technological approaches to enable such studies to be undertaken broadly in the scientific community. The ethical, legal, and social implications of such research are being systematically studied as well. The ultimate objective of the HMP is to demonstrate that there are opportunities to improve human health through monitoring or manipulation of the human microbiome. The history and implementation of this new program are described here.

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