Abstract PI: REZNIKOFF, WILLIAM S. Project: 1R13AI091196-01 Title: Microbial Diversity Course: Building Capacity for Human Microbiome Exploration Accession Number: 3256261 ================== NOTICE: THIS ABSTRACT WAS EXTRACTED FROM APPLICATION AND HAS NOT BEEN PROOFED BY AN SRA.WHEN THERE ARE PROBLEMS WITH THE APPLICATION SCANNING PROCESS, THE EXTRACTED TEXT MAY BE INCORRECT OR INCOMPLETE. ================== Overview of Research and Training Objectives for the Microbial Diversity Course The Microbial Diversity Course of the Marine Biological Laboratory is an internationally recognized advanced training course that provides an intellectual framework for understanding the ecological, physiological, and genetic mechanisms that govern microbial systems. We seek support to enhance the ability of the Microbial Diversity Course to train early career scientists in the cutting edge techniques required to advance our understanding of the microbiome, and to continue an exemplary training program that has contributed to the career development of foremost investigators in fields allied with microbiome research. Specifically, we propose to enhance the focus of the course on the microbiome by gathering leaders in microbiome research for lectures and symposia, fostering interdisciplinary linkages between investigators in a laboratory setting, providing students with training in advanced techniques, promoting the career development of young investigators, and facilitating original student research on microbial systems that provide insights on the human microbiome. Support from NIH will empower the Microbial Diversity Course to continue ongoing activities of direct relevance to NIH institutes and to achieve the following training and research activities: [unreadable] Invite foremost investigators in fields affiliated with microbiome research to instruct and interact with students through seminars, laboratory activities, and individual instruction. [unreadable] Host symposia that promote linkages between microbiome researchers and explore diverse microbial systems of relevance to the human microbiome. [unreadable] Provide classroom and laboratory instruction on cutting edge techniques for examining microbial processes and metabolic interactions in complex communities and in experimental systems. [unreadable] Facilitate student directed original research on topics that deal with the ecological, physiological, and genetic properties of diverse organisms and their interactions in complex assemblages. Microbes are the dominant life form in all ecosystems including the human ecosystem;many microbes found in the human microbiome have important direct roles in human health while those present in the outside environment frequently have important indirect roles. The MBL Microbial Diversity Course shall provide conceptual and advanced technical training to young microbiologists who wish to investigate microbial processes that are important to our understanding of the human microbiome. Thus the Microbial Diversity course shall prepare these scientists to make important contributions to our understanding of how microbes impact human health.