New Microbiome Center to combine UChicago, MBL and Argonne expertise [Video]

The University of Chicago, the Marine Biological Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory announced on May 13 a new partnership called The Microbiome Center, which will combine the three institutions’ efforts to understand the identity and function of microbes across environments.

These microbial communities-bacteria, viruses and fungi-affect every ecosystem on earth, including human bodies, oceans, homes and the surrounding land.

The new center dovetails with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s National Microbiome Initiative, launched May 13 with the goal of bringing together public and private entities to advance the understanding of microbiome behavior and enable protection and restoration of healthy microbiome function.

“In the past few years we’ve seen a state change in understanding the roles bacteria play in our world,” said Jack Gilbert, who will serve as the center’s faculty director. Gilbert, a professor in UChicago’s Department of Surgery, has research affiliations at …