The<unk>  <unk>  is a National Institutes of Health initiative with the goal of identifying and characterizing the microorganisms which are found in association with both healthy and diseased<unk> s. It is a five-year<unk> , best characterized as a feasibility study, and has a total budget of 115 million dollars. The ultimate goal of this and similar NIH-sponsored<unk><unk> s is a demonstration (or refutation) that currently poorly characterized changes in the<unk><unk>  can be associated with<unk>  health or disease.
Important components of the<unk>  will be culturing-independent methods of microbial community characterization, such as metagenomics (which provides a broad genetic perspective on a single microbial community), as well as extensive whole-genome sequencing (which provides a "deep" genetic perspective on certain aspects of a given microbial community, i.e., of individual bacterial species). The latter will serve as reference genomic sequences — 600 such sequences of individual bacterial isolates are currently planned — for comparison purposes during subsequent metagenomic analysis. The microbiology of five body sites will be emphasized: oral, skin, vagina, gut, and nasal/lung.
Human microbiome project
Comparison of birth control methods
Community-acquired pneumonia screening
Risk factor template
Minimal change disease screening
Sudden cardiac death screening
AIDS landmark trials
Clinical prediction rule