Concentrates Chemistry news from the week
▸ Highlights Combo treatment fights drug-resistant cancer Modular method makes macrolide medications Inorganic device mimics the activity of neurons Mechanism proposed for methane biosynthesis Japanese chemical makers have a good year Bayer in talks to buy Monsanto WHO says levels of Roundup on food are safe Congress debates Zika funding
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MICROBIOLOGY
Microbiome initiative announced
CREDIT: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
A half-billion dollars will go toward studying microbe communities on Earth The White House launched a half-bilinfluenced by diet and antibiotics, and its lion-dollar project on May 13 to study the dysfunction has been linked to obesity and communities of microbes that colonize asthma. Communities of microbes living and exert profound influence on almost ev- in marine environments can be affected by erything on Earth, from animal guts to soil changing ocean temperatures or disasters to the ocean and even to the atmosphere. such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. “In the past 10 years, we’ve come to They’re also key players in such disparate understand how essential the microbiome fields as biofuel technology and food is to the world around us,” said Jo Handelsprocessing. man, associate director for science at the Scientists have been calling for a coordiWhite House Office of Science & Technolo- nated national effort to study microbiomes gy Policy, during a briefing to announce the for several years (Science 2015, DOI: 10.1126/ project. science.aac8480; ACS Nano 2016; DOI Numerous federal agencies, including 10.1021/acsnano.5b07826). the National Institutes of Health, National “It’s nice to bring to bear the tools of the Science Foundation, National Aeronautics broader community to this extraordinary & Space Administration, and Department initiative,” said Paul Weiss, professor of of Energy, will together contribute $121 mil- chemistry and biochemistry and of matelion to the project, called the National rials science and engineering at the UniMicrobiome Initiative, over the next two versity of California, Los Angeles. Weiss, years. one of the driving forces behind the new Philanthropic organizations, univerinitiative, conducts research that focuses in sities, and industry are also committing part on developing tools to measure ocean $400 million to help fund the initiative. microbiomes. For example, the Bill & Melinda Gates The National Microbiome Initiative folFoundation is contributing $100 million lows in the footsteps of other government over the next four years to study the miinitiatives such as the BRAIN Initiative crobiome’s role in huand the Human Genome man nutrition and crop Project. protection. Committees have idenMicrobiomes have tified several broad goals captivated the scientific for the new initiative, world during the past desuch as the development cade as researchers have of more sophisticated come to recognize their tools for detecting, meainextricable relationship suring, and modeling with the organisms and microbiomes and inenvironments in which creasing communication they reside. —Jo Handelsman, associate between researchers who For example, the midirector for science at the White might now be operating crobiome that flourishes House Office of Science & independently. in the human gut can be Technology Policy Several recurring
“We don’t have good tools to alter microbiomes.”
themes have The bacterium emerged during dis- Enterococcus cussions of research faecalis, which problems, Handels- is less than 1 µm man said. Scientists long, is just one of need to understand the many microbes what constitutes in the human gut. a healthy microbiome. They also need computational tools and models to help understand microbiome community behavior. And to harness the promise of microbiomes—for example, to fix dysfunctional microbiomes or protect healthy ones—scientists need to understand their robustness. “We don’t have good tools to alter microbiomes,” Handelsman said. “The resistance of the microbiome to change is a big challenge to understand.” Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a microbiologist who has had a major influence in sounding the alarm about the overuse of antibiotics, voiced her excitement about the new initiative: “I’ve never seen anything so ready to go.”—ELIZABETH
WILSON MAY 23, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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