Human Microbiome Project
The Human microbiome project (HMP) is a National Institutes of Health initiative with the goal of identifying and characterizing the microorganisms which are found in association with both healthy and diseased humans. Total microbial cells found in association with humans may exceed the total number of cells making up the human body by a factor of ten-to-one and total number of genes associated with the human microbiome could exceed the total number of human genes by a factor of 100-to-one. Many of these organisms have not been successfully cultured, identified, or otherwise characterized. Important components of this project will be culturing-independent methods of microbial community characterization, such as metagenomics, as well as extensive whole-genome sequencing. In 2007 the Human microbiome project was listed on the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research as one of the New Pathways to Discovery.
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