Answer the white house call! Establishment of microbiome research alliance between Novartis and UCSF

Source: Biovalley 2016-05-16 a few days ago, the U.S government announced the establishment of the national microbiome program, and jointly invested 120 million US dollars to support research in this area The plan has attracted attention On the same day, Novartis took the lead in responding to the call of the U.S government, announcing that it cooperated with the famous University of California, San Francisco, and the Broder Institute to carry out microbiological research The plan is expected to last for four years, with a total amount of $8.1 million Researchers will use bioinformatics, synthetic biology, high-throughput sequencing and other means to study and predict the chemical molecular components and structures produced by microorganisms and their possible roles The ultimate goal of the researchers is to develop new drugs through the study of microbiome First, Novartis will use its unique sequencing technology and high-throughput screening methods to screen the chemicals secreted by different microorganisms, and then use synthetic biology to determine the chemical structure of these molecules and determine their possible biological functions Finally, based on these preliminary work, researchers hope to screen out a series of new drugs It is worth noting that the NMI program is not only the participation of U.S government agencies, many pharmaceutical companies and foundations have played an important role in it For example, the Gates Foundation promised to invest $100 million in the next four years to support the development of the program And many pharmaceutical giants also early layout of the field For example, a company has launched a research project called the Codex program to establish a public database of microbiology Another pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson, announced in February last year the establishment of the Johnson & Johnson human microbiome research center This time, the launch of NMI program in the United States is bound to ignite the field of microbiological research and further promote the development of human health industry.