The Human Microbiome Project So Far
August 28, 2012 | Terry Sharrer
With $170m funding some 200 scientists at 80 institutions, the has sought to identify a “core microbiome” that exists upon and inside all people, and the variable microflora. What they have discovered so far, however, is that no core exists; indeed, each genome had a unique microbiome. Researchers have sequenced a thousand species of bacteria, as well as fungi and viruses, from 242 healthy subjects, and found that different microbes can have the same function at same sites. With microbial cells outnumbering human cells in an individual, the question arises whether the microbiome colonizes humans or it’s the other way around. MORE
Image Credit: Human Microbiome Project