Meeting report of the fourth annual Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium symposium

Michael S Goodson; Robyn A Barbato; J Philip Karl; Karl Indest; Nancy Kelley-Loughnane; Robert Kokoska; Camilla Mauzy; Kenneth Racicot; Vanessa Varaljay; Jason Soares

doi:10.1186/s40793-021-00384-z

Meeting report of the fourth annual Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium symposium

Environ Microbiome. 2021 Aug 21;16(1):16. doi: 10.1186/s40793-021-00384-z.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH, USA. michael.goodson.4@us.af.mil.
² United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center - Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, USA.
³ Military Nutrition Division, United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA, USA.
⁴ United States Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS, USA.
⁵ Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH, USA.
⁶ Physical Sciences Directorate, United States Army Research Laboratory - United States Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, USA.
⁷ 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH, USA.
⁸ Soldier Effectiveness Directorate, United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA, USA.

Abstract

The Tri-Service Microbiome Consortium (TSMC) was founded to enhance collaboration, coordination, and communication of microbiome research among U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) organizations. The annual TSMC symposium is designed to enable information sharing between DoD scientists and leaders in the field of microbiome science, thereby keeping DoD consortium members informed of the latest advances within the microbiome community and facilitating the development of new collaborative research opportunities. The 2020 annual symposium was held virtually on 24-25 September 2020. Presentations and discussions centered on microbiome-related topics within four broad thematic areas: (1) Enabling Technologies; (2) Microbiome for Health and Performance; (3) Environmental Microbiome; and (4) Microbiome Analysis and Discovery. This report summarizes the presentations and outcomes of the 4th annual TSMC symposium.

Keywords: Biotechnology; Environmental microbiome; Human performance; Microbiome engineering; Microbiota; Military; Polymicrobial communities; Synthetic biology.