Hi Everyone,

 

Dr. Jack Gilbert is the QB/GEDD Science at the Edge seminar speaker on Friday, April 12.  His abstract is below and attached to this message.  Dr. Titus Brown is hosting the speaker.  If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Gilbert, please reply to this message with your available times (flexibility is helpful in scheduling the appointments) and I will get back with you to confirm the time.

 

Friday, April 12

7:45-9:00         Filled – Breakfast w/speaker (he is staying at Kellogg Center and charge meal to his room)

9:00-9:45         Open

9:45-10:30       Filled

10:30-11:15    Filled

11:15-11:30    Speaker Preparation, 1400 BPS

11:30-12:30    Seminar, 1400 BPS

12:30-2:00       Open – Lunch w/speaker

2:00-2:45         Filled

2:45-3:30         Filled

3:30-4:15         Filled

4:15-5:00         Filled

5:00-5:45         Open 

Jack Gilbert

Department of Ecology and Evolution

University of Chicago

 

The Earth Microbiome Project

 

The understanding of Earth’s climate and ecology requires multi‐scale observations of the biosphere, of which microbial life are a major component. However, to acquire and process physical samples of soil, water and air that comprise the appropriate spatial and temporal resolution to capture the immense variation in microbial dynamics, would require a herculean effort and immense financial resources dwarfing even the most ambitious projects to date. To overcome this hurdle we created the Earth Microbiome Project, a crowd-sourced effort to acquire physical samples from researchers around the world that are, importantly, contextualized with physical, chemical and biological data detailing the environmental properties of that sample in the location and time it was acquired. The EMP leverages these existing efforts to target a systematic analysis of microbial taxonomic and functional dynamics across a vast array of environmental parameter gradients. The EMP uses the data standards format to capture the environmental gradients, location, time and sampling protocol information about every sample donated by our valued collaborators. Physical samples are then processed using a standardized DNA extraction, PCR, and shotgun sequencing protocol to generate comparable data regarding the microbial community structure and function in each sample. To date we have processed >10,000 samples, and have >20,000 in the process of being analyzed. One of the key goals of the EMP is to map the spatiotemporal variability of microbial communities to capture the changes in important processes that need to be appropriately expressed in models to provide reliable forecasts of ecosystem phenotype across our changing planet. This is essential if we are to develop economically sound strategies to be good stewards of our Earth. The EMP recognizes that environments are comprised of complex sets of interdependent parameters and that the development of useful predictive computational models of both terrestrial and atmospheric systems requires recognition and accommodation of sources of uncertainty.

 

Thank you.

Helen

 

Helen Geiger, Administrative Assistant

Quantitative Biology Graduate Program and

Gene Expression in Development and Disease

Biochemistry

603 Wilson Road, Room 212

East Lansing, MI   48824

Email: [log in to unmask]

Phone:  517-432-9895

QB Website: http://www.qbi.msu.edu/

GEDD Website: http://www.gedd.msu.edu/