Integrative Center for Environmental Microbiomes and Human Health

项目概要-总体 拟议的COBRE计划的目标是建立一个环境综合中心， 微生物组与人类健康（ICEMHH）响应2016年国家 微生物组倡议（NMI）。NMI的构想是通过认识到人与人之间的联系 依赖于构成地球微生物群落的微生物群落，在环境中， 以及人体。美国国立卫生研究院在资助这一努力方面发挥着核心作用，“..特别强调 多生态系统比较研究，并设计新的调查工具，以探索和理解 美国国立卫生研究院人类微生物组计划（NIH Human Microbiome Project）。ICEMHH的重点是微生物之间的界面， 环境和人类健康，并跨越国家的最先进的“组学”的方法，生态分析和 预测模型夏威夷大学为微生物组研究带来了三个引人注目的优势： 夏威夷群岛独特的易驾驭和可扩展的景观，一个非常合格的生物学教师， 包括一个综合的队列最近聘请，微生物组为重点，终身制轨道，初级教授，和一个 致力于岛上居民的多样性。作为地球上最多样化的生物群落，夏威夷 提供了研究从山区到海洋的生态梯度对人类健康影响的机会， 在城市和农村地区。拟议的项目旨在解决两个关键和相互交织的健康问题， 问题：环境恶化和目前虫媒传播疾病的蔓延。在这 在此背景下，拟议的研究工作将（i）探索人类健康如何受到病原体暴露的影响 环境中的微生物;（ii）研究昆虫媒介的微生物组如何影响其传播， 疾病的微观世界内的岛屿的奥帕提亚;和，（iii）利用无脊椎动物模型，以提供深入了解 微生物组赋予健康的潜在细胞、遗传和分子机制。通过这种方式， 该中心将为夏威夷州及其他地区做出持久的贡献。

Project Summary – OVERALL The goal of the proposed COBRE program is to create an Integrative Center for Environmental Microbiomes and Human Health (ICEMHH) in response to the 2016 announcement of the National Microbiome Initiative (NMI). The NMI was conceived through the recognition that humans are both connected to and reliant upon the microbial communities that constitute the Earth's microbiomes, in the environment as well as the human body. The NIH plays a central role in funding this effort, “..with a particular emphasis on multi-ecosystem comparison studies, and investigation into the design of new tools to explore and understand microbiomes” [NIH Human Microbiome Project]. The focus of ICEMHH is the interface between the microbial environment and human health, and spans state-of-the-art `-omics' methods to ecological analyses and predictive models. The University of Hawaiʻi brings three compelling strengths to microbiome research: the uniquely tractable and scalable landscape of the Hawaiian Islands, an exceptionally qualified biology faculty, including an integrated cohort of recently hired, microbiome-focused, tenure-track, junior professors, and a dedication to the diversity of people that live on the Islands. As the most diverse biome on Earth, Hawaiʻi offers the opportunity to study the effects of ecological gradients on human health, from mountain to sea, and in both urban and rural settings. The proposed projects aim to address two critical and intertwined health problems: the deteriorating environment, and the current spread of insect-vector borne diseases. In this context, proposed research efforts will (i) explore how human health is impacted by exposure to pathogenic microbes in the environment; (ii) examine how the microbiomes of insect vectors affect their transmission of disease within the microcosm of the island of Oʻahu; and, (iii) exploit invertebrate models to provide insight into the underlying cellular, genetic and molecular mechanisms by which microbiomes confer health. In this way, the Center will provide lasting contributions to the State of Hawaiʻi, and beyond.