In 2017, the Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative (VMI) at Vanderbilt University was established bringing together an unprecedented group of multidisciplinary expertise from six schools in the university to: (i) create an infrastructure that unifies the microbiome community around complex challenges, (ii) catalyze campus-wide research, training, and teaching activities, and (iii) deploy state-of-the-science technologies and methods that will fundamentally advance microbiome science, therapy, education, and policy.