The PhyloChip and Second Genome are joining the American Gut initiative to “explore the connection between the human microbiome and type 2 diabetes.” This is a great example of how the technology that has stemmed from Berkeley Lab’s Gary Andersen (also leading researcher on the Thermopile Project) can aid other researchers’ work and develop  a vast reference dataset of microbiomes. Both Andersen and Second Genome have helped the American Gut Project to “build the world’s largest open-source, community driven, effort to “characterize the microbiomes of everyday people in order to understand the connections between environmental factors and microbiome changes.”

Read the full article here: http://techblog.lbl.gov/2013/03/lab-technology-spans-new-research-opportunities/