Center for Microbiome Research
What does the CMR do?
The UMass Center for Microbiome Research was created with support from the University of Massachusetts President’s Science and Technology Initiatives Fund to accelerate our understanding of how the microbes that live in and on us influence our lives, our health and our environment.
Our mission is to promote innovative and collaborative research, translate discoveries to practice, and inform our community about what microbiome research is discovering.
What is a Microbiome?
The microorganisms - and their genes - that inhabit a particular environment is a microbiome. The microorganisms that live and on us are called the human microbiome. Our gut contains trillions of bacteria that have profound influences on immune development, health, and disease.
What are the Centers Resources?
Microbiome Sequencing Service:
This service offers a wide array of services to assist with the design and implementation of microbiome and microbial genomic studies. We support data production, data processing, and preliminary analysis for projects of all scales, from proof-of-concept pilot to large-scale, multidisciplinary efforts. This service also integrates and coordinates activities closely with the other resource domains within the PMD.
Microbiome Computational Service (MCS):
This service offers advanced machine learning and statistical expertise for interpretation of clinical and experimental host-microbiome studies. The MCS also uses proprietary artificial intelligence approaches to determine mechanisms by which the microbiome mediates the emergence and progression of human disease, to provide data-based guidelines for the optimization of live bacteriotherapeutics, and to provide consultation to both academic laboratories and corporate entities on data analysis, visualization and interpretation.
Microbiome BioSamples Service (MBS):
This resource accelerates and facilitates microbiome-focused, clinical research in the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of patients with microbiome-associated illness. The service will assist in research by supporting the establishment and enrollment of study cohorts for sample collection in the critical care setting. The MBS has the expertise to collect specimens as needed, establishing and providing a searchable biorepository of de-identified, clinical samples with access to associated clinical metadata to UMass Chan researchers.