Human Microbiome Project (HMP)

Scanning electron microscope images of B. thetaiotaomicron, a prominent human gut bacterium, and the intestine.

Photo from PLoS Biol. 2007 July; 5(7): e199. Published online 2007 June 19. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050199.

A human being can be viewed as a biological eco-system that includes distinctly human cells and tissues as well as thousands of microbial species that co-exist in various parts of the body. In fact, "within the body of a healthy adult, microbial cells are estimated to outnumber human cells by a factor of ten to one. These communities, however, remain largely unstudied, leaving almost entirely unknown their influence upon human development, physiology, immunity, and nutrition. To take advantage of recent technological advances and to develop new ones, the NIH Roadmap has initiated the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) with the mission of generating resources enabling comprehensive characterization of the human microbiota and analysis of its role in human health and disease." [https://commonfund.nih.gov/hmp]

The Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine has joined the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as well as the J. Craig Venter Institute to address some early goals of this project. The HMP will rely on metagenomic sample sequencing as a key method for comparisons of microbial communities between individuals, sites, and states (e.g., disease, diet, age). Pilot projects will determine the appropriate sequencing platforms, quality controls, and annotation pipelines for (1) generating reference genomes and (2) sequencing metagenomic samples.

Reference genomes that are currently targeted for sequencing