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Goals

Our mission is to cultivate research and training excellence through deliberate faculty mentorship, robust interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative research, and a dynamic approach to development and application of cutting-edge tools. The specific goals are:

 

1. Create a critical mass of multi-disciplinary investigators in microbiome research across the biological scales, from host-microbe interactions to ecosystems. We propose to accomplish this, in part, through a faculty development program to guide promising junior investigators in becoming independent extramurally funded investigators, training more advanced investigators in application of cutting-edge tools, recruiting new faculty members into the Center, and administering pilot project and travel grant programs to attract additional investigators into the Center’s thematic area of research.  Membership will be open to any faculty members engaged in or interesting in becoming involved in research focused on any aspect of microbiome science.

 

2. Build research infrastructure to support research efforts of Center investigators though scientific research core facilities. In particular, we believe there is great value in developing a Center based on technology and tool development as the glue to hold a science community together.

 

3. Foster inter-institutional collaborations in Oklahoma by promoting scientific interactions through seminar series, work-in-progress meetings, journal club meetings and an annual retreat. We are intent on promoting interactions across departments and colleges to discuss current research activities, current capabilities, and needs.

 

4. Our ultimate goal is to develop the Center as a national and international leader in microbiome research.