Measuring and Monitoring Microbiomes

The Earth is populated with trillions upon trillions of microorganisms from all domains of life, encompassing a vast species diversity spanning biotic and abiotic environments. These microorganisms have essential roles in global nutrient cycling and are determinants of both health and disease. Major advances to our understanding of microscopic life are deeply dependent on technological breakthroughs that expand our capacity to investigate individual microbial cells as well as improve the feasibility and accuracy for measuring microbial communities and the products of their metabolism. Recently, the use of culture-independent methods such as DNA sequencing has shown the tremendous complexity of microbial habitats in diverse sites such as in foods, on humans and animals, within terrestrial and aquatic environments. However, these approaches still only provide rough estimates of microbial metabolic and functional potential. To comprehend microbial impacts on the planet and its inhabitants and to continue to develop microorganisms for biotechnological and biomedical applications, it is necessary to envisage new methods to measure and monitor microbiomes. This symposium will highlight biological, chemical, and analytical approaches and applications for studying microbial life and optimizing microbial communities. Speakers from different disciplinary backgrounds will address key topics in microbiome research including blending genetic and biochemical assessments to unravel the complexities of food fermentations, engineering microbiomes useful for preventing major human diseases, developing new analytical approaches to detect, quantify, and localize microbial metabolites, and elucidating the significance of individual metabolites synthesized by keystone microbial species. A major outcome of this symposium will be the identification of urgent needs and opportunities to accelerate both basic and applied science for understanding, preserving, and applying microbial life.