Biological Sciences Division
Staff Awards & Honors

December 2014

Janet Jansson Invited to White House Microbiome Roundtable

Dr. Janet Jansson, director of biological sciences at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was among 15 national experts in the fields of microbiology, genomics, and microbial ecology who participated in a Microbiome Roundtable held by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on December 18 at the White House Complex.

The microbiome is the community of all microorganisms that typically inhabits a particular environment, such as a body site or an environmental ecosystem. Microbiome studies have widespread implications in health and nutrition, food and agriculture, and energy and the environment.

The OSTP invited participants to share their views and identify research areas and approaches that can inform strategies for developing a roadmap to accelerate discovery within this field. The overall goal is to illuminate novel trajectories for microbiome research and engineering approaches for industry, government agencies, researchers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders that advance understanding of the microbiome.

Jansson is lead of PNNL's Microbiome in Transition, a new program to integrate multidisciplinary research toward developing multiscale models that will improve understanding of how microbiomes function and respond to perturbation. She also is president of the International Society for Microbial Ecology, a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and a member of the steering committee for the Earth Microbiome Project.