On May 13, 2016, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced a new National Microbiome Initiative, a coordinated effort to better understand microbiomes — communities of microorganisms that live on and in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere — and to develop tools to protect and restore healthy microbiome function.  The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) joined the National Microbiome Initiative, an effort to better understand microbiomes and develop tools to protect and restore healthy microbiome function.  UCSD was a key participant in this effort, and invested $12 million in its own microbiome research efforts.

The National Microbiome Initiative puts the spotlight on UC San Diego’s Microbiome and Microbial Sciences Initiative, a concerted research and education effort initiated in October 2015 by Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla to leverage the university’s strengths in science, medicine, engineering and the humanities. The campus-wide undertaking encompasses a research-focused Center for Microbiome Innovation and a student-centered Microbial Sciences Graduate Research Initiative.

The UC San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation has also received letters of support from a number of companies committed to innovation in this field, including GE, Illumina, Janssen R&D, MO BIO Laboratories, Biota, Sirenas, GALT and ChuckAlek. Participation in the White House’s National Microbiome Initiative and this network will help the Center for Microbiome Innovation target the human microbiome as a means to better manage diseases such as asthma, diabetes, obesity and psychiatric illnesses — and explore the microbiome as a source for new drugs and potential tool for precision medicine. UC San Diego researchers will also collaborate to advance research on soil, aquatic and other environmental microbiomes, and help other scientists use that information to address global challenges to agricultural sustainability, biofuel development and climate change mitigation.