Resource

The NIH Human Microbiome Project

    • 3National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 4National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 5National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 6National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 7National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 8National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 9Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 10National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 11National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 12National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 13National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 14National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 15National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 16National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 17National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 18National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
    • 19National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Published October 9, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.096651.109
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cover of Genome Research Vol 36 Issue 6
Current Issue:
June 2026, Vol. 36, No. 6
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Abstract

The Human Microbiome Project (HMP), funded as an initiative of the NIH Roadmap for Biomedical Research (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov), is a multi-component community resource. The goals of the HMP are: (1) to take advantage of new, high-throughput technologies to characterize the human microbiome more fully by studying samples from multiple body sites from each of at least 250 “normal” volunteers; (2) to determine whether there are associations between changes in the microbiome and health/disease by studying several different medical conditions; and (3) to provide both a standardized data resource and new technological approaches to enable such studies to be undertaken broadly in the scientific community. The ethical, legal, and social implications of such research are being systematically studied as well. The ultimate objective of the HMP is to demonstrate that there are opportunities to improve human health through monitoring or manipulation of the human microbiome. The history and implementation of this new program are described here.

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