The primary goal of the Genome Solver project is to create a community of faculty and students interested in the science of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP). Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the HMP project examines the diversity of microbes associated with humans.

By creating a network of undergraduate faculty and their students, all of
whom are engaged in a common goal – understanding in more detail the genomes of microorganisms found in and on the human body – we are helping to make it possible for all undergraduate science students (and perhaps eventually non-science majors as well) to participate in authentic research projects in the classroom. All that any student needs to participate in this research is some training and a computer with an internet connection.”

Anne Rosenwald (Biology)

The Genome Solver project has two main components—faculty workshops and the Genome Solver website. At workshops, faculty are immersed in a small community of their peers for two days to learn about bioinformatics research and teaching.

This website, genomesolver.org, is intended to sustain the communities coming out of the workshops and to serve as a repository for pertinent information such as student work and curricula, links to sequence analysis tools, scientific literature and popular press reports about the HMP.

Genome Solver is funded by the National Science Foundation and supported by the J. Craig Venter Institute, Georgetown University, and Simmons College.