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The Human Microbiome Project

Human beings are ecosystems on two legs, each of us carrying enough microbes to outnumber our human cells by 10 to 1 and our genes by even more. Identifying the dizzying numbers of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on our bodies is like exploring a new planet. You need much more than telescopes and charts to map the unknown territory called our microbiomes – and explorers to take a census of the inhabitants.

When Mohit Jain joined the ӳý, he had no idea that the postdoc at the desk next to him would become a close collaborator and friend. Although Mo and Roland Nilsson sat only a few feet apart, they were working in different worlds.

“I spoke the language of clinical biology, and Roland spoke the language of math,” Mo recalls. “We’d look at each other’s data, and it was as if we were speaking completely different languages. We couldn’t decipher at all what the other person did.”