JBIMS fosters collaboration and synergy across UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, combining strengths in Theory, Technology, Model Systems and Data Science to promote microbiome-based solutions for the health of our community, our ecosystems and our planet.
Integrative Microbiome Science for Discovery, Prediction and Translation:
Microbiome Theory
Coordinating across disciplines to advance and evaluate theories from ecology, evolution, biophysics and thermodynamics to understand and predict microbiome structure and function.
Technology for Microbiomes
Developing and integrating diverse technologies to observe and manipulate microbiomes and their interactions with their environments or hosts.
Data Science for Microbiomes
Building a community of microbiome researchers that promote data science best practices for reproducible and reusable datasets, and develop innovative science to uncover causal mechanisms in microbiomes.
Microbiome Model Systems
Developing and promoting the use of reproducible model systems for the study of microbiomes across scales of complexity.
News & Events
Phylosymbiosis in Fish Microbiota
Despite the rapid diversification of morphology and behaviors among pupfish species, gut microbiota related much more closely to the phylogenies of their hosts than to their life history. Reported by the Martin lab (Integrative Biology) in PLOS ONE, September 16, 2022.

Probing Contaminated Environments
From the Terry group (Plant and Microbial Biology): Description of culture-dependent and culture-independent bacterial diversity in contaminated wastewater. Published in Journal of Environmental Management.
Nutrient Profiles Across Microbiomes
Cobamides are important nutrients in microbial communities that can act as public goods, so cobamide availability in a habitat might shape the structure of microbial interactions. New research from the Taga lab characterizes variation in cobamide composition across insect and mammalian guts and environmental samples. Published August 29, 2022 in Biochemistry.

Bouncing Back After Drought
A new study from the Taylor lab reports that soil fungi are generally more drought-resistant than bacteria, but also that drought disrupts intra- and inter-kingdom correlations in microbial co-occurrence networks. Published July 5, 2022 in Nature Communications.