{"id":56967,"date":"2026-06-12T11:01:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/?p=56967"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:01:58","slug":"mobilizing-to-map-the-u-s-soil-microbiome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/current\/mobilizing-to-map-the-u-s-soil-microbiome\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobilizing to Map the U.S. Soil Microbiome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Johns Hopkins University geneticists and students, along with more than 150 researchers and students at 40 sites nationwide, are cataloging the nation\u2019s vast and largely unknown soil microbiome\u2014the microorganisms that are key to the ecological functions that sustain human, animal, and plant life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe soil is the most biologically active environment on the planet, and yet we\u2019ve sampled only a tiny fraction of life within it,\u201d says computer scientist Michael Schatz<\/a>, senior author of a related study published in Nature Genetics<\/a><\/em> and JHU\u2019s Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Computational Biology and Oncology. \u201cThis scientific void we\u2019re trying to fill on microbial diversity could only be accomplished through this network of scientists and students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort, part of the BioDiversity and Informatics for Genomics Scholars (BioDIGS) consortium<\/a>, is one of the biggest microbiome studies ever attempted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has already resulted in the discovery of more than 1,000 new strains of bacteria and never-before-seen microbes. It also is encouraging the next generation of genetic scientists and strengthening genetics course materials at participating schools. \u201cStudents can be very sophisticated data scientists,\u201d says Schatz. \u201cThey were involved with sample collection and now we\u2019re leaning on them to help build out the reference genomes of the microbes, to scan and ID genes\u2014everything. We knew we couldn\u2019t do it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 JILL ROSEN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team including Hopkins geneticists and students has already discovered more than 1,000 new strains of bacteria and microbes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":56979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"issue":[105],"class_list":["post-56967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current","issue-spring-2026"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMobilizing to Map the U.S. Soil Microbiome - Johns Hopkins Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine\/current\/mobilizing-to-map-the-u-s-soil-microbiome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mobilizing to Map the U.S. Soil Microbiome - 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