178 Microbial Reference Genomes Associated with the Human Body

Venter Institute Scientists, Along with Consortium Members of the NIH's Human Microbiome Project, Sequence 178 Microbial Reference Genomes Associated with the Human Body

Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit genomic research organization, have published (along with other members of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Microbiome Jumpstart Reference Strains Consortium), a catalog of 178 microbial reference genomes isolated from the human body.  Other members of the Consortium are: Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, the Broad Institute, and the Genome Center at Washington University. The paper is being published in the May 21 issue of the journal Science. 
The human body is teeming with a variety of microbial species. This collective community is called the human microbiome. The role these microbes play in human health and disease is still relatively unknown but likely very important. The NIH Human Microbiome Project was launched in 2007, as part of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Common Fund’s Roadmap for Medical Research. It is a $157 million, five-year effort that will implement a series of increasingly complicated studies that reveal the interactive role of the microbiome in human health. 

Venter Institute Press Release 20th May