The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced today a new National Microbiome Initiative to encourage scientists to work together to study microbes — and the collections of microbes called microbiomes — across disciplines. The goal is to get a better understanding of these little critters that live everywhere — from the soil we plant crops in, to the oceans we swim in, to our very own digestive systems.
And it's not just understanding them. Scientists want to know enough to be able to affect different outcomes by tinkering with microbiomes.
Need an example to make it more concrete? So did we. So ASU Now sat down with Ferran Garcia-Pichel, the founding director of ASU's Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics.
And we found understanding of the mysterious — and tiny, obviously — world of microbiomes in of all places, a block of cheese.
More Science and technology
Roots of Alzheimer’s disease extend beyond the brain
For decades, Alzheimer’s disease has been treated as a condition that begins and ends in the brain. Researchers have focused on the buildup of amyloid plaques, tangles of tau protein and the slow…
ASU microscopes help solve decades-old asteroid-impact deposit mystery
Axel Wittmann had always had “a fondness for exotic rocks,” as he puts it, his favorite being suevite, formed from intense meteorite collisions. But in 2009, when he met fellow geologist Philippe…
Major in motion
Inside a dimly lit computer lab at Arizona State University, U.S. Space Force Maj. Tyler Williams leans over a glowing monitor, lines of simulated network traffic scrolling by faster than most eyes…