Project Grant 2328529

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program provides $509,573 to Trustees of Tufts College, doing business as Tufts University, for a 3-year research project titled "Collaborative Research: Mechanisms of Community Coalescence in Synthetic Microbiomes." The project aims to investigate how microbiomes, such as those found in fermented foods like sourdough and kombucha, reassemble and function when they mix, a phenomenon known as community coalescence. Through experiments on these model fermented food systems, the research will shed light on the mechanisms governing cross-community invasions and explore the potential for leveraging community coalescence to engineer microbiomes for industrial and medical applications. The findings will also be used to increase undergraduate research participation and public understanding of microbiomes through outreach efforts. No sub-awards are planned under this grant.