Event

Professor Karen E. Nelson, Director of Human Microbiology and Metagenomics at the J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville MD, USA, will host a research seminar titled "Genomic Medicine and Metagenomics: Applications for Human and Animal Health." It will take place on Wednesday 18th November, 2009, at noon in Amphitheatre B, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt. Hope.

Abstract: 

The fields of genomics and metagenomics have allowed scientists to obtain all the genetic information from any organism of choice. This work has resulted in the partial or complete genomes of numerous species including humans, plants such as rice and tomato, and food production animals including the bovine and chicken. These studies have also allowed us to access the genetic information of microbial species including pathogens, microbes that can benefit the environment, and uncultured species. It has become increasingly evident that genomics and metagenomics hold significant promise for increasing our understanding of microbial diversity on humans, in agriculture and in the environment. We stand to gain knowledge on the many microbial diseases associated with the human body, inclusive of those that are yet to be characterized.

Current estimates for example are that the microbial species that inhabit the human body vastly outnumber the number of host somatic cells. Recent technological advances are allowing us to generate in-depth sequence information on the diversity of these populations and how they change over time. It is anticipated that the surveys of the human body will enable tremendous advances in this realm of science. Initial studies on the human metagenome conducted by our group and others have allowed for the identification of homologues to virulence factors, and the recreation of metabolic pathways from a range of microbial species. The availability of highthroughput metagenomic approaches now allows us to address medically relevant diseases that have been thought to have a microbial association but that we have not been in a position to investigate before. Applications of genomics to human and animal health will be presented in this seminar.