This month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the Human Microbiome Project. The human microbiome is comprised of the genomes of every micro-organism in humans. The Project will provide $115 million over five years to sequence and characterize at least 600 microbial genomes. Samples will be grown in laboratories and collected from the digestive tract, mouth, skin, nose and female urogenital tract regions of volunteers. Subsequent grants will be provided to sample microbiomes in connection with specific diseases. An initial $8.2 million in one-year grants have already been awarded to four sequencing centers to sequence 200 microbial genomes.

Source: NIH