Vanderbilt Microbial Alliance for Precision: Charting the Unseen

Overview

Type: Vanderbilt Reinvestment Award (VRA)

The precision medicine revolution highlights the need for discoveries that reflect individual diversity, not merely the population on-the-whole. Vanderbilt stands at this paradigm’s forefront, illuminating health/disease against our unique genes, traits and circumstances. Frequently overlooked, however, are the profound microbial contributions to human individuality. From vast ecosystems of commensal microbes to life-threatening infectious agents, each person’s unique microbiome spans thousands of species and millions of genes. To chart this landscape, the Vanderbilt Microbial Alliance for Precision (vMAP) will strategically integrate trans-institutional assets for microbiology with our enterprise for precision medicine/genomics. In masse, vMAP will incorporate microbiome specimens from Vanderbilt’s healthcare enterprise into microVU, our massive biorepository of clinical pathogens with unprecedented patient-linkage, together with powerful analyses facilitated by the worldrenowned Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative. By translating these personalized resources into multidisciplinary deliverables, vMAP will forge a pipeline for discovery, innovation and education that harnesses the paired diversity of host and microbe.

Faculty Participants

Lead Faculty in bold

School of medicine (Clinical)

  • Maria Hadjifrangiskou, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
  • Jonathan Schmitz, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
  • Borden Lacy, Edward and Nancy Fody Chair in Pathology;Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
  • Mariana Byndloss, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
  • Jane Ferguson, Assistant Professor of Medicine.
  • Ivelin Georgiev, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
  • Jill Pulley, Research Associate Professor of Medicine.

school of engineering

College of arts and sciences