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 independently funded investigators, training more advanced investigators in application of cutting-edge tools, recruiting new faculty members into the Center and administering pilot projects to attract additional investigators into the Center’s thematic area of research. Membership is 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 efforts of Center investigators though an Anaerobic Microbiology Core Facility. In particular, we believe there is great value in developing a Center based on technology and tool development as the glue to hold OSU's 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 symposium. We are intent on promoting interactions across departments, colleges, and institutions to discuss current research activities, capabilities, and future needs.

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