We are not alone! Trillions of microbes (the human microbiota) reside on and in the human body. Our microbial "partners" help us digest our foods, break down toxic compounds that we ingest, and play an important role in keeping pathogenic organisms in check.
Estimates of the complexity of the microbial communities that reside on and in the human body, together with assumptions about gene density in microbial species, have suggested that the number of genes associated with our microbial partners (the microbiome) outnumber human genes by several orders of magnitude. These microorganisms encode metabolic pathways that we as humans have not had to evolve on our own, suggesting that our microbial partners may be essential for our survival as a species.
The majority of the microbial populations inhabiting the human environment remain largely unexplored and we are still greatly limited in our knowledge about the physiology and ecology of the microbial species that live in association with humans. This has hampered our ability to determine the precise role of these organisms in health and disease.
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) is an international research initiative that will lay the foundation for future studies of human-associated microbial communities in health and disease. The HMP applies the techniques of metagenomics - the study of complex microbial communities using sequencing - to the analysis of microbial community structure and function. The HMP has outlined an ambitious set of goals that will ultimately answer such questions as whether or not humans share a core microbiome and how our microbial communities change over time in response to aging, disease, medications, lifestyle and other interventions.
IGS is creating and hosting the HMP Data Analysis and Coordination Center (DACC), and so, is responsible for the data collection and analysis of HMP researchers at IGS, as well as internationally.
