A UW-Madison bacteriology professor, along with 17 other scientists from around the world, proposed a new way of approaching the study of microbes Wednesday, according to a university press release.
UW-Madison’s Tim Donohue and the other scientists believe looking at how microbes and colonies of microbes interact with different environments could help solve the world’s biggest problems. The research could affect issues like personalized medicine, global health, new energy sources and bio-based manufacturing, according to the release.
“Twenty years from now we may look back at this as a watershed time where we began to take information on microbes and use them as predictors of human health and influencers of planetary activities on a new scale,” Donohue said in the release.
Donohue said UW-Madison could play a large role in furthering the research.
“If we can find a way here to connect teams of [UW-Madison scientists] with researchers in analytics and computation, we can be a model for the country and the world,” Donohue said in the release.
