Being Commensal: Human-Microbe Relations at the Edge of Biological Science

共生：生物科学边缘的人类与微生物关系

• 批准号: 1027035
• 负责人: Hugh Raffles
• 金额: $ 1.7万
• 依托单位: The New School
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1027035&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Being; Commensal; Human; Microbe; Relations

Microbes populate human bodies by the hundreds of trillions, from the moment of birth until long after death. Microbial cells in human bodies outnumber human cells at a staggering ten to one, yet little is known about how these commensal bacteria factor into human development, health, illness, nutrition, or gene expression. This project will critically assess scientific work being done on human gut microbes at the Center for Genome Sciences (CGS) at Washington University, where scientists have begun to consider microbes essential to being human, and microbial genomes as constitutive of the "second" human genome. This research has three aims: first, to evaluate strategies in systems biology and metagenomics as they develop in the lab, second, to follow the implementation of scientific knowledge in everyday life, and third, to explore the effects of this work on human and microbial lives. Research will consist of twelve months of fieldwork including: archival study, interviews, and participant observation, both in the CGS laboratory and the international field study sites connected with this scientific project.This project brings anthropological questions about new kinships, genetics, sociality, and social practices to bear on questions unfolding at the edges of biological thinking about nutrition, food, and human health. Understanding commensalism, the biological sociality between humans and microbes, connects the concerns of anthropology, science and technology studies, and systems biology. It also enables collaborative research across the natural and social sciences. By investigating new conceptions of the human organism in the context of new social ecologies, this research will help social scientists, health organizations, and the broader public better understand the scientific and practical implications of metagenomics and human microbiota on public health issues.

从出生的那一刻到死后很久，微生物将人体填充了数百万亿。人体中的微生物细胞的人数超过了十分壮大的人类细胞，但对于这些共生细菌如何将其引入人类发育，健康，疾病，营养或基因表达的人几乎没有知识。该项目将在华盛顿大学的基因组科学中心（CGS）对人类肠道微生物进行批判性评估，那里的科学家开始考虑对人类必不可少的微生物，而微生物基因组是“第二”人类基因组的组成型。这项研究具有三个目的：首先，评估在实验室中发展的系统生物学和宏基因组学的策略，其次是遵循日常生活中科学知识的实施，第三，以探索这项工作对人类和微生物生活的影响。研究将包括十二个月的实地调查，包括：档案研究，访谈和参与者观察，包括在CGS实验室和与这个科学项目有关的国际现场研究站点中。该项目带来了人类学问题，这些问题就新的亲属关系，遗传学，社会性和社会实践带来了对生物学的生物学，食物和人类健康，人类和人类健康，人类和人类健康，人类和人类健康的问题的影响。了解感官主义，人类与微生物之间的生物学社会性，联系了人类学，科学和技术研究以及系统生物学的关注。它还可以在自然和社会科学之间进行合作研究。通过在新的社会生态环境中调查人类有机体的新观念，这项研究将帮助社会科学家，卫生组织和更广泛的公众更好地了解宏基因组学和人类微生物群对公共卫生问题的科学和实际含义。