Puerto Rico Center for Microbiome Sciences - Project Summary The overall goal of the COBRE Puerto Rico Center for Microbiome Sciences (PR-CMS) is to accelerate and expand research capacity at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus (UPR-MSC). The PR-CMS plans to become an innovative platform designed to maximize research synergy in the microbiome field and bring innovation in data sciences to the region. By leveraging the available expertise and facilities, the COBRE PR-CMS will expand the research and learning opportunities of the new frontiers of microbiome research. This COBRE Phase I Center will bring unique support for data production and sequence analyses at the University of Puerto Rico, becoming the first facility of its kind in the region. The goals of the Center include 1) Fostering the development of meritorious junior investigators into competitive researchers working on projects with broad biomedical significance, 2) Managing programmatic activities and providing professional development support and tools to promote interdisciplinary collaborations at the basic and translational levels, and 3) Establishing a Microbiome Research Core that includes instrumentation and technical support required to conduct state-of-the-art research. The CMS will be supported by three cores, an Administrative Core for infrastructure enhancement and faculty development activities, a new Microbiome Research Core with expertise in data production and analyses, and a Research Support Core, which will sustain the research of three junior Research Project Leaders (RPLs) working to expand their scientific studies. The three Research Projects (RPs) are mentored by productive senior faculty who are committed to their success. These projects address important biomedical problems in the areas of mental health (RP1), seizure disorders (RP2), and oral cancer (RP3). Despite being diverse in scope, they are unified by a focus on microbiome- driven processes. The COBRE PR-CMS will establish important partnerships with existing core facilities and become part of the national “Microbiome Centers Consortium”, a network across the US that is accelerating the understanding of microbiomes by sharing resources, promoting data standards, and fostering ethical research practices. The COBRE PR-CMS will be the first core facility of its kind in the Caribbean region. The Center will hence support a dynamic research community, enabling the training of a new generation of scientists able to address fundamental questions about the microbiome.
