This two-year grant will support an ambitious research agenda spearheaded by Dr. Keith Seifert of the University of Ottowa, and Dr. Robert Samson of the Dutch Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures to use advanced DNA sequencing technology to further advance our understanding of fungi and the role they play in the microbial ecosystems of indoor environments. Supported activities include the analysis of more than 6,000 new fungal cultures to provide detailed DNA sequence and taxonomic information, which Seifert and Samson expect to result in the discovery of 50 to 100 new species of fungi. In addition, Seifert and Samson will conduct further research on identifying regions of fungal DNA that can be appropriately used for species identification, as the current DNA region used for identification is effective in distinguishing only 72% of known fungal species. Funds from this grant will also support the education and training of one graduate student and two postdoctoral fellows.

Different parts of the body have different microbial profiles. The microorganisms that thrive in our underarms are different from those that live on our hands, which are different, in turn, from those that live on our scalp. Funds from this grant support a project by the University of Chicago's Jack Gilbert to investigate how these unique microbial profiles interact with the microbial populations of surfaces in the indoor environment. Gilbert will examine the microbial profiles associated with the dominant hand, the gut, and heel pad from 20 individuals in 10 homes. He will then compare these profiles to those found on door knobs, kitchen surfaces, bedroom and bathroom floors, and light switches following a move into a new home. These profiles will be examined every day for two weeks prior to moving and four weeks after moving to a new home, shedding light on whether the microbes found on people are transferred to the surfaces of their homes and, if so, whether the transferred microbes thrive in the new environments they find themselves in.

This grant will fund the efforts by Noah Fierer, a young researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, to examine the diversity and structure of microbial communities in kitchens. Fierer-in collaboration with his colleague Rob Knight-plans to collect samples from twelve residential kitchens to determine the geographical distribution of microbial communities and to track the movements of the communities across kitchen surfaces. He plans to collect samples from a number of kitchen surfaces before and after meal preparation and collect samples from a variety of foods that were used to prepare the meal. DNA will be isolated from the samples and then amplified, sequenced, and analyzed using bio-informatic tools.

One of the objectives of the Foundation's Indoor Environment program is to improve the cohesiveness of the community and its ability to communicate internally and externally by developing data visualization and imaging techniques and repositories. This grant to the Marine Biological Laboratory supports a joint project with the University of Chicago, the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Colorado, Boulder to develop MoBE DAC, a data analysis core for the Indoor Environment program. The overarching goal for this collaborative effort is to provide tools and a data archive for analyzing molecular sequence data and for visualizing ecological and functional similarities between microbial communities in the indoor environment. The team plans to integrate the functional capabilities of the websites of MG-RAST, VAMPS, QIIME, and the genome database, FungiDB, through a common database structure. This project will facilitate comparisons of molecular ecology data and contextual information across laboratories and study sites, providing a platform for accelerating publication of results and training of students for environmental microbiology laboratories.

One of the objectives of the Foundation's Indoor Environment program is to improve the cohesiveness of the community and its ability to communicate internally and externally by developing data visualization and imaging techniques and repositories. This grant to the University of Chicago supports a joint project with the University of California, Riverside, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the University of Colorado, Boulder to develop MoBE DAC, a data analysis core for the Indoor Environment program. The overarching goal for this collaborative effort is to provide tools and a data archive for analyzing molecular sequence data and for visualizing ecological and functional similarities between microbial communities in the indoor environment. The team plans to integrate the functional capabilities of the websites of MG-RAST, VAMPS, QIIME, and the genome database, FungiDB, through a common database structure. This project will facilitate comparisons of molecular ecology data and contextual information across laboratories and study sites, providing a platform for accelerating publication of results and training of students for environmental microbiology laboratories.

One of the objectives of the Foundation's Indoor Environment program is to improve the cohesiveness of the community and its ability to communicate internally and externally by developing data visualization and imaging techniques and repositories. This grant to the University of California, Boulder supports a joint project with the University of Chicago, the University of California, Riverside, and the Marine Biological Laboratory to develop MoBE DAC, a data analysis core for the Indoor Environment program. The overarching goal for this collaborative effort is to provide tools and a data archive for analyzing molecular sequence data and for visualizing ecological and functional similarities between microbial communities in the indoor environment. The team plans to integrate the functional capabilities of the websites of MG-RAST, VAMPS, QIIME, and the genome database, FungiDB, through a common database structure. This project will facilitate comparisons of molecular ecology data and contextual information across laboratories and study sites, providing a platform for accelerating publication of results and training of students for environmental microbiology laboratories.

One of the objectives of the Foundation's Indoor Environment program is to improve the cohesiveness of the community and its ability to communicate internally and externally by developing data visualization and imaging techniques and repositories. This grant to the University of Chicago supports a joint project with the University of California, Riverside, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the University of Colorado, Boulder to develop MoBE DAC, a data analysis core for the Indoor Environment program. The overarching goal for this collaborative effort is to provide tools and a data archive for analyzing molecular sequence data and for visualizing ecological and functional similarities between microbial communities in the indoor environment. The team plans to integrate the functional capabilities of the websites of MG-RAST, VAMPS, QIIME, and the genome database, FungiDB, through a common database structure. This project will facilitate comparisons of molecular ecology data and contextual information across laboratories and study sites, providing a platform for accelerating publication of results and training of students for environmental microbiology laboratories.