Recent Outreach and Partnering

MML Part of New National Microbiome Initiative, Receives FDA Grant

MML's program in microbiome metrology, led by Scott Jackson, is part of the new National Microbiome Initiative, announced by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in May 2016. The initiative will help advance microbiome applications for health care, food safety and security, environmental protection, bioenergy production, and other areas.

Also in microbiome news, MML received a grant from the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Center for Devices to develop a mixed-pathogen DNA reference material so that developers of new diagnostic tools can assess analytical sensitivity, specificity, and relative performance of pathogen detection devices and assays that use next generation sequencers.

Learn more about MML's vision for an infrastructure for advanced microbial measurements.

MML Expertise to Help Advance Synthetic Genome

MML's Elizabeth Strychalski attended the invitation-only HGP-write: Testing Large Genomes in Cells meeting in May 2016, to contribute to discussion of the underlying technology and knowledge required to design and create synthetic human genomes, which have the potential to lead to innovative medical treatments and platforms for research and production of new materials, energy feedstocks, and sources of nutrition. Learn more about how NIST's expertise in synthetic and engineering biology will help meet critical measurement needs to realize this vision.

Genome Editing Workshop Explores Measurement Needs

In early May 2016, MML's Samantha Maragh hosted the first Genome Editing Standards Workshop, in partnership with the American Society of Gene and Cell therapy and sponsored by Microsoft Corporation and Editas Medicine. Participants from FDA, NIH, academia, and industry discussed measurement assurance needs to help genome editing mature into a tool for the study and treatment of human disease. Participants discussed FDA requirements; increasing confidence in editing, sample measurements, and assessment of off-target edits; and informatics needs. MML will continue to work with stakeholders to advance the field.