Expect foundational health research from the Human Microbiome Project's successor

In May 2016, the White House launched the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI) with a combined Federal agency investment of more than $121 million in the upcoming Fiscal year. Nine months later, scientists and universities have responded to that investment by scaling up microbiome research. If past federal investments in microbiome research are any indication, the NMI could contribute to our understanding of human health in fundamental ways. 

Microbiomes are the communities of microorganisms that live on or in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere. We care about them because the health of microbial communities can impact human health, climate change and food security.

Dysfunctional microbiomes are associated with chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and asthma, so it’s no wonder the National Institutes of Health is among the five federal agencies devoting funding to the initiative.

NIH is investing an extra $20 million into microbiome research through grants this year, but it’s not the agency's first contribution to the field. From 2012-2014, NIH invested $491 million into research to explore the role of the human microbiome in conditions as diverse as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, autism, asthma, cancer, preterm birth, brain development, and behavior. And back in 2007, they launched the 10-year Human Microbiome Project, which developed foundational research resources to catalyze the field of microbiome science.

If the NMI turns out to be anything like the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), we can expect this federal research funding to advance our fundamental understanding of human health. This is clear in a recent TED Talk by microbial ecologist Rob Knight, who’s research was funded by the HMP.

As Knight explains, “The microbes all around our body turn out to be responsible for a whole range of differences that make different people who we are.” Microbial communities perform a huge range of functions that are vital for human health - they help us digest our food, they educate our immune system, and they help us resist disease.

Connections between our microbiome and obesity are just one striking example from Knight’s research. By analyzing a sample of your gut microbiome, scientists are now able to predict whether you’re lean or obese with 90 percent accuracy. As a comparison, analysis of your entire human DNA sequence can make the same prediction with only 60 percent accuracy. This suggests that your gut's microbiome is a better predictor of obesity than every gene in your genome.

While the microbes in our bodies may feel most immediately relevant, the White House Microbiome Initiative is explicitly designed to “foster the integrated study of microbiomes across different ecosystems,” whether in soil, oceans, the atmosphere, or people.

As Jo Handelsman, a leading scientists behind the initiative, told The Atlantic last year, “The same questions are being asked about many microbiomes. What’s a healthy one? What’s normal? How do we change them? These are things people think about in oceans, lakes, soil, and people. The principles underlying the answers are probably common.” The NMI will advance understanding by supporting interdisciplinary research, developing platform technologies, and expanding the microbiome workforce through citizen science and public engagement opportunities.

As this research progresses, we can expect to learn a lot more about the world around and inside us.