The Microbiome Center, a joint initiative of the MBL, the University of Chicago, and Argonne National Laboratory, has announced the successful applicants for what it’s calling “Pilot Projects, 2.0.” The Center sought proposals linking the study of microbes with any aspect of global change. The focus of the grants is to “fund exploratory projects difficult to fund elsewhere, particularly those that help investigators prepare preliminary datasets for future grand applications,” according to the Center’s website.
This year’s winners will foster microbial research collaborations between the Center’s three institutions—Argonne, MBL and UChicago.
The winning proposals are:
- “Desiccation Tolerance in Green Algae from Desert Microbiotic Crust Microbiomes” – Zoe Cardon (MBL), Elena Peredo (MBL), and Jotham Austin II (UChicago)
- “Microbial Community Nitrogen Metabolism in Rapidly-Changing Arctic Soil” – Jacob Waldbauer, Emil Ruff (MBL), and Anne Giblin (MBL)
- “Identification of Microbial Associates in Marine Invertebrate Species” – Heather Marlow (UChicago)
- “Bile Acids as Ecological and Evolutionary Determinants of Microbial Assemblage, Stability,and Resilience of Regional Intestinal Microbiomes” – Eugene Chang (UChicago), Dion Antonopoulos (Argonne), and Mitch Sogin (MBL)
- “An Integrative ‘Omics Approach to Elucidate Biochemical States in Microbiomes” – Mark Mimee, Tao Pan, and Murat Eren (UChicago)
- “Nematostella vectensis: a sea anemone model for investigating the effects of environmental pollutants on Cnidarians and their associated microbiome” – Emil Ruff (MBL), Karen Echeverri (MBL), and Murat Eren (UChicago)
- “Changing environments and the microbial ecosystem of migratory birds across the annual cycle” – Shannon Hackett (UChicago)
The winners of the Microbiome Center’s original Pilot Project funding were announced in June 2019.