My research proposal would be regarding the effects of microbes on human weight loss and gain. There is already an incredible amount of money being funneled into the study of human weight loss (less so into human weight gain) so this kind of proposal could be quick to be accepted and funded.
It has been shown that when germ free mice are inoculated with the microflora of an obese or lean person, those mice tend to mimic the weight of the person they received the microflora from, even if diet is the same between the two groups of mice. My proposal is to analyze the microbial contents of the microflora and determine what microbes are primarily responsible or at least whose presence is correlated with weight loss or gain. Then, as germ free mice tend to be quite unhealthy, take standard mice who have been exposed to a variety of conditions and attempt to change their weight by introducing these microbes. Eventually, if there is success in this stage, there could be trials done on humans in which we attempt to change the composition of their gut microflora in order to induce weight gain or loss. This sort of data would be invaluable to healthcare as it would allow doctors to reduce or increase the weight of their patients even if the patients are not compliant with doctors suggestions (as they usually are not). This sort of treatment would almost certainly be broadly implemented, provided there are no harsh side effects.
