Human Microbiome Project

Within the body of a healthy adult, microbial cells are estimated to outnumber human cells by a factor of ten to one. These communities, however, remain largely unstudied, leaving almost entirely unknown their influence upon human development, physiology, immunity, and nutrition. To take advantage of recent technological advances and to develop new ones, the NIH Roadmap has initiated the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) with the mission of generating resources enabling comprehensive characterization of the human microbiota and analysis of its role in human health and disease.

BEI Resources role within the Human Microbiome Project is to establish and administer a resource repository.  The HMP repository is needed to store materials and reagents generated under the HMP including:

  • Cultured organisms
  • Amplified DNA from uncultured organisms
  • Metagenomic DNA samples

Through BEI Resources, the materials and reagents in the HMP Repository will be made widely available to the scientific community*.

  • To view the Human Microbiome Project materials available through BEI Resources, click here.
  • For information on Depositing Reagents for the Human Microbiome Project, click here.
  • For information on Registering to receive Human Microbiome Reagents, click here.
  • For information on Requesting Reagents from the Human Microbiome Project, click here.   

*ATCC cultures referenced in the Human Microbiome Project will be available through the ATCC website.            

                                                         HMP Logo

HMP