Download Constructing a Spatially and Temporally Resolved Map of the Human Microbiome

COMPUTER SCIENCE
Constructing a Spatially and Temporally Resolved Map of the Human Microbiome
The human microbiome, the 10^13 microbial cells that live on and inside our body, remains
largely uncharacterized. In part, this is due to the high cost of DNA sequencing. However, these
costs are dropping rapidly, unleashing a flood of sequence data. One key question is simply this:
how much do the bacteria on and in our body vary over the course of 24 hours? The plan would
be to take a number of subjects and sample a large number of sites on the body to allow a
detailed map of the skin and the mouth, perhaps several hundred sites, every hour. The data
would then be mapped on a 3D wireframe of the human body, and hotspots for change over
time of the microbial community overall, or of particular species, would be highlighted. The
results would tell us about the natural variability we expect to see within each person over the
course of the day (and hence the effect sizes we need to look at in follow-up studies covering
the effects of specific drugs or medical conditions), and could potentially tie into deep themes
of ecological succession, biodiversity, etc.