"Microbiomes": New National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR)
The new NCCR Microbiomes will be headed by Jan Roelof van der Meer (University of Lausanne) and Julia Vorholt (ETH Zurich, Institute of Microbiology).
Today, the Federal Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation unveiled six new National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR). One of them is the NCCR “Microbiomes” which researches how bacterial colonies affect the health of humans, animals and plants. Complex communities of microbes, microbiomes, usually consist of up to several hundred types of bacteria that interact with each other, with their hosts and with the environment. Due to their complexity, microbiomes are difficult to understand. The aim of the interdisciplinary research network is to identify the principles that govern microbiomes across biological systems. In addition, the researchers want to construct or specifically modify microbiomes. This can be used, for example, to eliminate pathogens in humans and plants or to stabilise microorganisms with desired properties.
The NCCR operates for a period of four years and can be renewed twice for second and third phases; i.e. a total of 12 years. In the first phase, three groups from our institute (Julia Vorholt, Wolf-Dietrich Hardt and Shinichi Sunagawa) will be involved in the NCCR.