Microbiomes are the communities of microorganisms that live on or in people, plants, soil, oceans, and the atmosphere. Microbiomes maintain healthy function of these diverse ecosystems, influencing human health, climate change, food security, and other factors. Although new technologies have enabled exciting discoveries about the importance of microbiomes, scientists still lack the knowledge and tools to manage microbiomes in a manner that prevents dysfunction or restores healthy function.
WID researchers are engaged in diverse microbiome projects like linking gut microbes to Alzheimers Disease and gene expression, understanding the implications of microbial diversity, and discovering new antibiotics.
The UW-Campus Microbiome Portal is a component of WID’s Multi-Omics Hub.
By combing the ocean for antimicrobials, scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have discovered a new antifungal compound that efficiently targets multi-drug-resistant strains of deadly fungi without toxic side effects in mice. WID postdoc Marc Chevrette is part of the team that published the finding in Science.
Assistant professor of plant pathology Claudia Solís-Lemus is a recipient of funding from the Department of Energy to develop statistical theory and tools for computational biology.
WID Director Jo Handelsman shared a conversation on Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda and on WUWM about soil and microbes.
WID Director Jo Handelsman and biochemistry professor Ophelia Venturelli are part of a multi-university interdisciplinary team awarded a grant to study information transmission in microbial communities and how biological networks communicate.
A growing understanding of microbial communities and their influence on human health or crop productivity has led to the dream of changing these communities to produce benefits. New research at WID addresses this head-on.
WID’s new hubs—Data Science, Multi-Omics, and Illuminating Discovery—represent a new path forward for collaborative research projects and fields.
From On Wisconsin Magazine: UW-Madison students are joining the hunt for new antibiotics in their introductory biology coursework and becoming part of the Tiny Earth network, based at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.
Ten highly innovative projects have been chosen to receive University of Wisconsin–Madison Data Science Initiative funding, including two led by Wisconsin Institute for Discovery investigators.
Tiny Earth’s 2018 symposium will feature experts on the front lines of the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
Handelsman is one of 34 faculty honored with Vilas professorships supported by the estate of professor, Senator, and Regent William F. Vilas.
WID researchers Stephen Wright and Robert Nowak are part of a UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative project to create machine learning tools that dramatically reduce the time and cost associated with screening compounds for therapeutic relevance.
Systems Biology researcher Kalin Vetsigian and graduate student Ye Xu recently published findings in Nature’s Scientific Reports about the stochasticity of growth within Streptomycetes spore communities.
Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, explores the importance of soil at the Crossroads of Ideas lecture series.
Microbiome researchers bring $8 million in awards annually, which initiative looks to increase through grants.
The podcast “Is DNA the Basis for all Life in the Universe?” produced by The Naked Scientists, an affiliate of the BBC at Cambridge University features John Denu speaking of his recent findings on how the gut microbiome affects DNA expression.
The upshot of the study from researchers in the Epigenetics theme at WID is another indictment of the so-called Western diet, high in saturated fats, sugar, and red meat.
Systems Biology researchers explore the importance of community history and assembly when considering microbial communities in a paper in Nature Communications.
The Epigenetics theme at WID is putting mass spectrometry to use in new ways with specialized workflows designed to uncover the mysteries of chromatin.
Creating energy solutions for communities throughout the world poses serious challenges, but a group of WID Frontier Fellows thinks its alternative idea has a bright future.
