National Conference of Microbiome Centers; June 25-26, 2019; Irvine, CA

微生物群落是微生物群落--细菌、古生菌、病毒、真菌和其他微型真核生物--存在于从人体到海洋和土壤的所有地球环境中。在环境方面，人类社会依赖于微生物群落提供的生态系统服务。微生物群还影响供水和废水净化等工程系统的功能，并改变我们建筑物的健康环境。我们才刚刚开始发现人类、动物和植物的微生物群与宿主生理、健康和疾病之间的复杂相互关系。因此，微生物组科学涉及广泛的重要问题。微生物组研究近年来蓬勃发展，美国现在有30多个学术中心/倡议。这些单位在相对隔绝的情况下运作，面临着类似的挑战。本次会议将召集美国微生物组中心/倡议的主任和副主任，分享最佳实践，并启动协调，为更大的微生物组研究人员社区服务。中心之间的知识共享将有助于推动微生物组研究向前发展，首先是通过帮助解决实际挑战，从长远来看，通过帮助解决领域中尖锐的概念挑战。会议将于2019年6月25日至26日在加州大学欧文分校国家科学院贝克曼中心举行，为期一天半。会议将有大约50人参加，其中包括美国36个已确定的中心/计划的主任和副主任，其中包括一些非常成熟的中心/计划，以及其他刚刚形成并由更初级的研究人员领导的中心/计划。来自联邦机构和私人基金会的代表也将被邀请参加会议。议程将涉及：1.现有中心的结构和任务有什么不同的模式？2.产生最好的微生物组科学的不同战略是什么？3.中心之间的协调机会是什么？会议期望的长期成果是提高学术微生物组中心的效率，以促进研究。这次初始会议的目标是确定进一步协调国家微生物组中心网络是否有用，确定这样一个网络的初步优先事项，并与更大的微生物组研究社区分享会议成果。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Microbiomes are communities of microorganisms - bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi and other microeukaryotes - that inhabit all of Earth's environments from the human body to oceans and soils. In the environment, human society depends on ecosystem services performed by microbial communities. Microbiomes also influence the functioning of engineered systems such as water distribution and wastewater purification and alter the health environment of our buildings. We are only beginning to discover the complex interrelationships between the microbiomes of humans, animals and plants and host physiology, health, and disease. Hence, microbiome science intersects with a wide range of important issues. Microbiome research has flourished in recent years such that three dozen academic centers/initiatives now exist in the United States. Operating in relative seclusion from each other, these units face similar challenges. This meeting will gather the Directors and Associate Directors of US Microbiome Centers/Initiatives to share best practices and initiate coordination to serve the larger community of microbiome researchers. Sharing of knowledge between the Centers will help move microbiome research forward, initially by helping to address practical challenges and in the longer-term, by helping to address the steep conceptual challenges in field.The conference will take place at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and Engineering on the University of California, Irvine campus for a day and a half meeting on June 25-26, 2019. The meeting will include ~50 people, with Directors and Associate Directors of 36 identified Centers/Initiatives in the US, including some that are very well established and other others that are just forming and led by more junior researchers. Representatives from federal agencies and private foundations will also be invited to the meeting. The agenda will address: 1. What are different models for the structure and missions of existing centers? 2. What are different strategies for producing the best microbiome science? 3. What are opportunities for coordination among centers? The desired long-term outcome of the meeting is to improve the effectiveness of academic microbiome centers to advance research. The goal of this initial meeting is to determine whether further coordination of a national network of microbiome centers would be useful, identify initial priorities for such a network, and share the results of the conference with the larger microbiome research community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.