Events

Supported through OGI’s Genomics Project Development (GPD) Workshops program, Drs. Turlough Finan and Marie Elliot, from the Department of Biology hosted a scientific meeting co-chaired by Drs. Josh Neufeld and Chris Yost on metagenomics on June 17-18, 2010 at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Despite the broad application of metagenomic and other molecular techniques for microbial community characterization, many labs still lack molecular and bioinformatic capacity for selecting the best methodologies and equipment to successfully incorporate genomic techniques into an existing research program. This practical workshop was geared to provide graduate students and researchers with the hands-on theoretical and methodological details on the application of genomic and molecular methods that have emerged in the fields of both environmental and human microbiology. The interactive workshop featured a selection of techniques that were presented from a practical perspective by internationally recognized leaders in the field. The presentations were followed by extended group discussions in which questions were answered, alternative protocols highlighted and advice provided on troubleshooting and technical know-how. Following the presentations/discussions, a strategic planning session involving national and international investigators, with a blend of promising new researchers and established researchers, laid the foundation for the development of new Ontario-based capacity and research teams, prepared to respond to provincial, national and international funding opportunities.

Key initial outcomes:

• Introduction to the MetaMicroBiome Library (http://metagenome.uwaterloo.ca/) by Drs. Josh Neufeld and Trevor Charles. This NSERC SPG funded project will ultimately be available to Canadian and international researchers and will be an open-access resource of genetically diverse clone libraries available for conducting custom phenotypic screens. The MetaMicroBiome Library will provide an excellent tool to researchers in the field of metagenomics and can be used as a leveraging tool when preparing metagenomic proposal applications
• Led by Dr. Dawn Field, the participants are working together to draft a review that would capture some of the topics raised during the metagenomics workshop with a particular focus on the current and emerging bioinformatics tools available to researchers. A possible venue for this article would be the upcoming Metagenomics Special Issue to be published in the open access journal Standards in Genomic Sciences or the Canadian Journal of Microbiology
• Collaborations between groups were highlighted as a strategy to identify priorities for large-scale studies of metagenomics, with a particular emphasis placed on the need to identify more bioinformaticians. Potential funding organizations and competitions were identified, for which joint applications can be developed, including the upcoming Genome Canada Large Scale Applied Research Projects Competition, Ministry of Research and Innovation Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence Round 5 Competition, various NSERC opportunities and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Marine Microbiology Initiative (www.broadinstitute.org/annotation/viral/Phage/Home.html)
• Several upcoming areas for research in the area of metagenomics were identified. This included:
  • Functional metagenomics where an introductory workshop could combine the analytical skills of organic chemists to test hypothesis generated from the genomic data from the fields of environmental proteomics and metabolomics.
  • Viral focused metagenomics to boost studies with particular emphasis on soil environments and parallel current work on marine viral metagenome projects by Drs. Curtis Suttle (UBC) and Forest Rohwer (San Diego State University).
  • Combination of metagenomics and community profiling approaches to better link single cells to entire systems and communities (biogeography) using new abilities to explore the ‘rare biosphere’ and enable testing that “everything is everywhere: but the environment selects”. One possibility is to examine air and water vectors for microbial distribution as a way of understanding the influences of immigration on microbial community structure and composition.

A workshop summary and presentations can be accessed by the links below. Ultimately, this workshop will build metagenomic and bioinformatic capacity within the province of Ontario and among Canadian microbiologists attending the Canadian Society of Microbiologists meeting.

For more information, please see the meeting agenda or the links below. 

Links to PDF summary and presentations:

OGI GPD Workshop Summary – Metagenomics
Bioinformatics Field CSM
DNA SIP Neufeld CSM
Microarrays and qPCR Yergeau CSM
Next gen sequencing Hallam CSM