About Symbiosis
Living with Microbes
Humans, and the plants and animals we rely upon, do not live in a sterile environment. Nor should we. We have evolved to live with microbes; to defend against those which harm us, and to maintain those from which we derive benefit. Microbes too have evolved diverse metabolic activities that allow them to thrive in a wide variety of habitats and in association with all living creatures. The result of this coordinated evolution is a spectacular diversity of interactions between microbes and the world, and a concomitant diversity of ways in which microbes affect our lives.
Microbes plague us by clogging our industrial pipelines, medical catheters, and teeth with complex, surface-adhered communities called biofilms, or by confounding plant and animal immune systems to cause disease. Conversely, and less well-recognized, microbes aid us in numerous ways. For example, microbial biofilms are essential for industrial processes such as wastewater treatment. Furthermore, they provide essential nutrients to plants and animals, block invasion by would-be pathogens, modulate immune systems, and promote normal development.
What unifies all microbial interactions, beneficial or harmful, is the intricate molecular cross talk that occurs between the microbes and their hosts (surfaces, other microbes, animals, or plants) and that allows associations to develop. Dissection of these molecular conversations will be an integral part of our ability to utilize microbes to our benefit and to combat microbes that harm us, in industrial, environmental, agricultural and medical settings.
Studying Symbiosis
To completely understand how microbes cause disease we must understand how long-term benign or beneficial interactions between microbes and hosts are maintained, and how they affect host immunity and development. Furthermore, to successfully prevent or treat disease (in plants, animals and humans) it will be necessary to examine a pathogen in the context of the entire microbial community of which it is a member, rather than in isolation. Communication between normal flora and invading pathogens could have a profound effect on the subsequent development of disease. Therefore, many of the future advances in medicine, agriculture, and industry will come from investigating the interaction of beneficial microbes with their hosts.
Original Proposal for Symbiosis Cluster Initiative
MIcrobial Sciences Building
In the twenty-first century, microbial scientists will address biological questions of unprecedented complexity and importance. They will employ technologies and strategies unimagined today. These scientists must be broadly trained, eager to approach research in non-traditional ways and to cross traditional academic boundaries, and able to work as members of multi-disciplinary research teams. Needless to say, they will also need access to the best instrumentation and facilities available.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Microbial Sciences Initiative was undertaken to provide an environment where scientists and students can freely engage in this cutting-edge approach to scientific discover. To achieve this, UW-Madison's three core microbiology departments - Bacteriology, Food Microbiology and Toxicology (Food Research Institute) and Medical Microbiology and Immunology - have joined forces to create an international center of excellence in the microbial sciences.
At the heart of this bold new initiative is the Microbial Sciences Building, a 330,000 square-ffot, $120.5 million complex, which houses the three departments.
No institution is better poised to take the field of microbial sciences in this new direction than the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more than a century, microbiologists on the Madison campus have been leaders in education, discovery, and innovation. Our vision for the future is to continue this leadership role.
