I would be very excited to fund research that uses 16S rRNA sequencing and metagenomic technology to catalog and compare the microbiomes of people across cultures. My background is in anthropology including medical anthropology. I think a lot of information could be found out about the role microbiomes play in our health and disease by looking at differences and similarities between them cross-culturally. By looking at contrasts of microbiomes between cultures, it may allow some correlations between microbiomes and disease to stand out. Similar causal relationships may be seen with healthy people and particular bacterial strains or species.
The funding would include using different specialties necessary to have a comprehensive analysis of population microbiomes, including specialties such as the analysis of gene expression (metatranscriptomics), protein products (metaproteomics) and metabolic profiles (metabolomics).
We may find in some geographical locations and cultures a prevalence of healthy bacteria from species or strains that are different from ours. This would give us a more comprehensive perspective on which bacteria are considered the “healthy” and most common bacteria. If the presence of specific bacteria are prevalent across cultures, this would be vital to know, and it would further solidify the importance of preserving healthy bacteria and microbiomes in our bodies. It would show how vital those particular types of bacteria are for our health and well being.
Also, differences found between cultures and geographical locations would indicate how dynamic the microbiome is, and how it is able to be influenced by the environment. It would also point out how our microbiomes are in a delicate balance with the environment, no different than ecosystems we find in nature.
It would also give us information about the correlation between disease and certain known bacteria found in a particular microbiome. For example, if one particular culture has a high rate of a particular disease, and it is found that there is also a higher rate of a particular species or strain of a bacteria not found in other cultures, then a hypothesis can be made of a causal relationship between the two. This approach could also be used when looking at the prevalence of particular healthy bacteria in a population and the absence of a particular disease that is found in other populations without that particular bacteria.
