Overview
Type: Vanderbilt Reinvestment Award (VRA)
The precision medicine revolution highlights the need for discoveries that reflect individual diversity, not merely the population on-the-whole. Vanderbilt stands at this paradigm’s forefront, illuminating health/disease against our unique genes, traits and circumstances. Frequently overlooked, however, are the profound microbial contributions to human individuality. From vast ecosystems of commensal microbes to life-threatening infectious agents, each person’s unique microbiome spans thousands of species and millions of genes. To chart this landscape, the Vanderbilt Microbial Alliance for Precision (vMAP) will strategically integrate trans-institutional assets for microbiology with our enterprise for precision medicine/genomics. In masse, vMAP will incorporate microbiome specimens from Vanderbilt’s healthcare enterprise into microVU, our massive biorepository of clinical pathogens with unprecedented patient-linkage, together with powerful analyses facilitated by the worldrenowned Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative. By translating these personalized resources into multidisciplinary deliverables, vMAP will forge a pipeline for discovery, innovation and education that harnesses the paired diversity of host and microbe.
Faculty Participants
Lead Faculty in bold
School of medicine (Clinical)
- Maria Hadjifrangiskou, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
- Jonathan Schmitz, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
- Borden Lacy, Edward and Nancy Fody Chair in Pathology;Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
- Mariana Byndloss, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
- Jane Ferguson, Assistant Professor of Medicine.
- Ivelin Georgiev, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.
- Jill Pulley, Research Associate Professor of Medicine.
school of engineering
- Audrey Bowden, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
College of arts and sciences
- Seth Bordenstein, Centennial Chair in Biological Sciences.
- Brian Bachmann, Stevenson Professor of Chemistry.
- Steve Townsend, Assistant Professor of Chemistry.