RaMP: Training towards an Inclusive and Diverse Workforce in Microbiome Sciences

地球上所有的植物和动物都不断地与微生物（真菌、细菌和病毒）相互作用。虽然这些微生物中有一小部分是致病的病原体，但绝大多数对宿主无害或有益。植物和动物从生活在它们体内和表面的各种微生物群落（所谓的微生物群）中获得的好处是广泛的——从帮助消化和营养到提供对病虫害的关键防御。因此，微生物组的研究是一个特别令人兴奋的研究途径，因为它与基础科学和对生物多样性的理解以及在人类健康，保护和农业实践方面的新应用的发展有关。现在，要从该领域的研究中获得的知识出发，关键是要把重点放在建立一支多样化和受过广泛训练的微生物组学劳动力队伍上。这个RaMP网络的总体目标是为旧金山湾区研究实验室的毕业后参与者提供有意义和领先的微生物组科学研究经验，包括加州大学伯克利分校、加州大学旧金山分校、旧金山州立大学和加州州立大学东湾分校，经常与当地行业合作伙伴合作。该项目针对的是最近毕业的社区大学转校生，包括来自历史边缘化背景的学员和/或从不太传统的途径进入科学领域的学员。所提供的培训和指导将使新一代微生物组研究人员能够继续读研究生，作为未来的行业领导者进入劳动力市场，或者遵循无数其他有意义的职业道路，因为微生物组在塑造人类健康和农业方面的重要性日益得到认可。生活在动植物体内和体表的微生物群落的复杂性使得多学科方法对于揭示它们的功能和效用至关重要。微生物组学的发展需要研究人员在四个主要领域的努力整合：理论/建模、数据科学、技术开发和实验/模型系统开发。此外，考虑到微生物组科学与其他部门和重大社会挑战的紧密联系，这一领域的研究人员队伍向前发展是至关重要的，代表了研究影响的社区的多样性。学士学位后的参与者将接受微生物学不同领域的培训，提供技能，利用丰富的理论框架和令人兴奋的模型系统寻求充足的工作机会。该项目将为湾区的学术、国家实验室、博物馆和工业环境提供广泛的培训机会。这个RaMP网络还寻求建立一个强大的导师社区，以培养下一代多样化和有道德的研究人员，他们将被理想地置于做出基本发现并将这些发现转化为解决方案的位置。在这个不断增长的RaMP网络中，集体优势和多样化的方法和系统有可能为比较微生物组研究开辟新的途径，允许理论家、经验主义者和数据科学家之间进行有意义的交流，并通过基础研究产生新的解决方案。学士学位后的参与者将花一年的时间进行新颖和独立的研究，同时得到一个网络的全面支持，该网络的重点是持续追求知识和培训，以指导最佳实践。总体目标是创建一个未来的科学社区，在这个社区中，多样性、公平性和包容性是内在的，作为直接结果，它正在推动我们对微生物组组成、功能、稳定性和工程的理解，以解决重大的社会挑战。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

All plants and animals on Earth continually interact with microbial organisms (fungi, bacteria, and viruses). Although a small proportion of these microbes are pathogens that cause disease, the vast majority are either harmless to their hosts or are beneficial. The benefits that both plants and animals receive from the diverse microbial communities living in and on them (their so-called microbiomes) are broad – ranging from aiding in digestion and nutrition to providing critical defenses against pests and disease. As such, the study of microbiomes is a particularly exciting research avenue because it is relevant to both basic science and understanding of biodiversity and to the development of new applications in human health, conservation, and agricultural practice. Now, to move from knowledge gained in research within the field, it is critical to focus on building a diverse and broadly trained workforce in the Microbiome Sciences. The overarching goal of this RaMP network is to offer meaningful and leading-edge research experience in Microbiome Sciences to post-baccalaureate participants across research labs in the San Francisco Bay Area, including University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco State University, and California State University, East Bay, often in collaboration with local industry partners. The program is targeted at recently graduated Community College transfer students, including mentees from historically marginalized backgrounds and/or who have come into science from less traditional paths. The training and mentoring provided will empower a new generation of microbiome researchers who can continue on to graduate school, enter the workforce as future industry leaders, or follow myriad other meaningful career paths that have opened up because of the increasingly recognized importance of microbiomes in shaping human health and agriculture.The complexity of microbial communities living in and on plants and animals makes multidisciplinary approaches essential to unlocking their functions and utility. Advancement in Microbiome Sciences requires integration of efforts among researchers in four major areas: theory/modeling, data sciences, technology development, and experimental/model system development. Moreover, given how closely the Microbiome Sciences interface with other sectors and with grand societal challenges, it is critical that the workforce of researchers in this field moving forward represent the diversity of the communities that the research impacts. The post-baccalaureate participant will be trained in different areas of Microbiome Sciences, providing skills to seek ample job opportunities using rich theoretical frameworks and exciting model systems. This program will provide broad training opportunities across academic, national lab, museum, and industry settings in the Bay Area. This RaMP network also seeks to build a strong community of mentors to train the next generation of diverse and ethical researchers who will be ideally placed to make fundamental discovery and to translate such discovery into solutions. The collective strengths and diverse approaches and systems within this growing RaMP network holds the potential to open new avenues for comparative microbiome research, to allow for meaningful cross-talk between theoreticians, empiricists, and data scientists, and to generate new solutions through basic research. Post-baccalaureate participants will spend their year undertaking novel and independent research while fully supported by a network that is unified by its focus on the continual pursuit of knowledge and training in mentoring best practices. The overarching goal is to create a future scientific community in which diversity, equity, and inclusion is inbuilt and, as a direct result, is pushing the boundaries of our understanding of microbiome composition, function, stability, and engineering to solve grand societal challenges.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.