The document discusses the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a large collaborative project involving hundreds of researchers from multiple institutions and NIH institutes. The HMP was funded by the NIH Common Fund and aimed to sequence and analyze microbial genomes to better understand the human microbiome. Key figures from the NIH and HMP discuss how the project brought together experts from different fields through workshops and addressed an important area of science that spanned multiple NIH institutes. They reflect on the factors that contributed to the HMP's success, such as clear goals, broad consultation, and addressing a timely opportunity in human genomics.
The document discusses the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a large collaborative project involving hundreds of researchers from multiple institutions and NIH institutes. The HMP was funded by the NIH Common Fund and aimed to sequence and analyze microbial genomes to better understand the human microbiome. Key figures from the NIH and HMP discuss how the project brought together experts from different fields through workshops and addressed an important area of science that spanned multiple NIH institutes. They reflect on the factors that contributed to the HMP's success, such as clear goals, broad consultation, and addressing a timely opportunity in human genomics.
The document discusses the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a large collaborative project involving hundreds of researchers from multiple institutions and NIH institutes. The HMP was funded by the NIH Common Fund and aimed to sequence and analyze microbial genomes to better understand the human microbiome. Key figures from the NIH and HMP discuss how the project brought together experts from different fields through workshops and addressed an important area of science that spanned multiple NIH institutes. They reflect on the factors that contributed to the HMP's success, such as clear goals, broad consultation, and addressing a timely opportunity in human genomics.
2 | The Academic Executive Brief - Volume 3, Issue 2 | 2013 I was a program director at the National Cancer Institute for seven years before coming to the Common Fund. One of the areas I was interested in was Tuberous Sclerosis, which is a syndrome that no one institute or center really owned because the people have symptoms in all sorts of different organ systems, and they often develop cancer and epilepsy. The Common Fund was designed to address important areas of science that span the missions of several ICs. Would you say the HMP ts that model? Mary: Yes. Especially as a concerted effort to do what the HMP ended up doing, it would have fallen between the missions. For us in the NIHs Ofce of Strategic Coordination, the HMP was ideal for the Common Fund because there was both a need and an opportunity. In the mid to late 2000s, the decrease in cost for sequencing and the increase in throughput suddenly put studying the microbial community within reach. Common Fund projects should be timely and catalytic, and HMP was. George, would you agree that the time was ripe for the HMP? George Weinstock: For those of us outside the NIH, it made a great deal of sense. With Common NIH Common Fund in position to foster collaboration
An interview with Mary Ellen Perry, Program Leader for the Ofce of Strategic Coordination at the National Institutes of Health, and George Weinstock, Leader of the Human Microbiome Project and Associate Director of The Genome Institute at Washington University Hundreds of researchers and multiple academic institutions and NIH institutes participated in the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) to sequence and analyze microbial genomes, create resource repositories, and examine the associated ethical, legal and social implications. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund contributed $143 million to the HMP over the rst ve years (Phase 1), and $15 million to a more limited Phase 2. Mary, how did you become involved in the Common Fund? Mary Ellen Perry: The Common Fund was established in 2006 to support research that benets more than one NIH Institute and Center (IC). I became involved because I believe a lot of important and interesting areas of research fall between the missions of the ICs, and because of the way the NIH is set up, they are sometimes less well supported than they should be. George Weinstock is Associate Director of The Genome Institute and Professor of Genetics and Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University in St. Louis. He has played leadership roles in the Human Genome Project, the Human Microbiome Project, and other genome projects. His interest is in applying large-scale genomics methods to medical problems in infectious diseases and human genetics.
Mary Ellen Perry is a Program Leader in the National Institutes of Health Ofce of the Directors Ofce of Strategic Coordination and oversees the development, implementation and assessment of several cutting-edge Common Fund programs. Dr. Perry was previously a Program Director for the National Cancer Institute. For unabridged author biographies, visit: http://AcademicExecutives.elsevier.com.
http://AcademicExecutives.elsevier.com | 3 forth. All these areas really are crosscutting, with the intersection point being the genomic information that you just created. And so from the very rst genome that was sequenced, it was almost immediately an interdisciplinary project. The great thing is that everyone wants to be part of that and wants to help in the analysis. In fact, for many of the initial genomes we did, we would put together big consortia of analysts who would all do it for free just because they wanted to be part of it. It became standard operating procedure to put together people from different disciplines. How does a project of this magnitude begin? Mary: Each year the Common Fund hosts an open series of meetings to gather ideas. If an area Fund support, all the institutes could then take the information, resources, framework and infrastructure from the HMP and use them to start their own microbiome projects targeting their own particular mission, which has in fact happened. Now microbiome projects exist in 16 institutes. What you are seeing here is the genome era creating a multidisciplinary type of project that has been played over and over again. To really maximize the utility of the sequencing information, you have to bring in lots of different specialists. You need to involve not only people who under- stand the biology of the organism, but people who understand metabolism, the regulation of gene expression, bioinformatics, population genetics, evolution, comparative biology and so What you are seeing here is the genome era creating a multidisciplinary type of project that has been played over and over again. PUBLICATION COUNT CAGR 2008-2012 = 69% JOURNAL CATEGORY COUNT CAGR 2008-2012 = 28% Using a keyword search of human microbiome, the gure shows a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28% for journal category expansion, and 69% for number of publications between 20082012. Source: SciVal custom analysis Figure 1: Growth in human microbiome publication diversity Publication Count Journal Category 4 | The Academic Executive Brief - Volume 3, Issue 2 | 2013 The Human Microbiome Project had clear and valid goals that were very timely and important for everybody. Genomics era gives rise to new breed... continued community, but more so medical specialists who worked on infectious diseases, microbiomes, microbial ecology, and specic organs and tissues. Together, we were able to provide input to help the Common Fund frame a program proposal for the HMP. How successful was the HMP in carrying out this shared mission? George: For the HMP, the NIH really did a great job of bringing together very different health areas. The NIH staff member who led the sample collection was from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Grantees from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases played an important role in dening organisms to look for and sampling mechanisms. Researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is identied as having promise, then we try to home in on the possibilities by having subsequent, targeted workshops. Many of the types of leaders we would invite are apparent, but we do like to balance out the group, going so far as to get someone in the room whom we would call a skeptic. We also need to determine how much interest or potential there is for NIH staff to foster a trans-NIH program. For the HMP, this meant reaching beyond the National Human Genome Research Institute, which was organizing the effort, to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, as well as others. George: I was at, and chaired, a couple of those workshops. And as Mary said, they not only brought together people from the genome Figure 2: HMP Data Analysis and Coordination Center Source: http://www.hmpdacc.org/ http://AcademicExecutives.elsevier.com | 5 All these areas really are crosscutting, with the intersection point being the genomic information that you just created. And so from the very first genome that was sequenced, it was almost immediately an interdisciplinary project. Genomics era gives rise to new breed... continued and share data, yet they were ultimately competing for funding. So we put them between a rock and a hard place and we didnt intend to. We also found that one year was a pretty limited time to put together and inspire a team. We didnt need to be that stringent. George: There is a happy ending to some of those stories. At least two of those projects that didnt get continued funding via the HMP put in for R01s, and both got funded. So it wasnt like they died on the vine. It actually did initiate projects that would not have been initiated otherwise due to the tenacity of the investigators. The HMP was a large, complex project, and throughout its lifespan resources were being added much more so than we had anticipated at the beginning. There is a much smaller HMP2, but it might have been good after the fourth year to envision a wider scope as certain things were getting off the ground. Much work is being taken up in some ways by different institutes, but some areas cut across all the institutes and really shouldnt be the responsibility of one or the other. In general, our biology projects are getting so huge we may want to stand back and think about whether models used successfully in the past are scalable and whether there might be new things to consider to tackle even larger projects. n who study a lot of GI tract issues, made a list of organisms and outlined other tasks the group should do, and so it went. We covered far more parts of the human body and far more organisms than any other project has even come close to. That could not have been done without this wonderfully coordinated and broad-based input from the expertise embedded in the different NIH institutes. What were the key ingredients in the success of an eort of this magnitude? Mary: The earlier on that everyone is consulted, the earlier they feel part of the effort. When they have had input into the goals, the goals become their own and their contributions reect that ownership. The clarity of the goals is also key. If an effort gets off the ground and its still a little unclear exactly where its going, then people get confused and disgruntled. Eventually they will give up and move on. The HMP had clear and valid goals that were very timely and important for everybody. Every IC staffer and researcher said, Yes, I can see this would be important for me, but even if its not for me, its important for the eld. It really got a lot of buy-in and enthusiasm and a lot of collaboration. Is there anything you would have done dierently? Mary: In one area, we set up demonstration projects and gave investigators one year to demonstrate feasibility. We asked them to talk to each other, come up with common approaches,
(Culture and History of The Ancient Near East 71) Isaac Kalimi, Seth Richardson - Sennacherib at The Gates of Jerusalem - Story, History and Historiography (2014, Brill Academic Publishers)