ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled The Human Microbiome: Ecology and
Evolution, organized by Drs. Ruth E. Ley, Alejandro Reyes and C. Jessica Metcalf. The conference will be
held in Banff, Canada from February 13-16, 2022.
This Keystone Symposia conference will explore the evolutionary and ecological forces shaping the interplay
between the human host and microbiome. The microbiome is implicated in a widening set of disease
conditions, yet many questions remain as to how its diversity and composition are assembled and maintained.
This program is designed to take on the topic of the microbiome across scales, integrating the latest
understanding of human microbiome diversity across time and space, and delving into the molecular
interactions that shape the associations. This conference aims to understand how movement of human
populations, past and present, shape patterns of microbiome diversity. The program will include sessions on
deciphering evolutionary dynamics linking microbiota to the human host, as well as discussions on
understanding the co-evolution of humans with the microbiome at level of interactions at the molecular scale.
Other topics will assess how interactions between host and microbiome can be harnessed for health. Through
integration of patterns, processes and theory derived from human and non-human systems, attendees will gain
an integrated view of microbiome diversity across modern human populations, and their interactions in host
health.