Delaware Microbiome Project (DMP)

The DMP is a citizen science effort to crowd source sample collection that will help us better understand what microbes are where in Delaware, what they might do, how these patterns are shaped by environmental conditions, and how they vary through time. Using the data we collect here, we will be trying to predict microbial community structure and functions based on more easily collected environmental data and even pictures of sites. We’d also like to know if particular sites have large populations of interesting microbes that we could go and try to bring in the lab. So, send us a sample and you might end up helping us tame a microbial unicorn!

We provide a kit with instructions and all materials needed. If you provide us an email to contact you when you send your kit back, you’ll get back a report that tells you about the microbial community in the sample you sent, what they might do, and what other sites your sample most closely resembles.

To request a kit or ask questions, please email us at microbiome@udel.edu

If you’d like to use this as a middle school or high school classroom activity and/or access our data for science projects, we’d love to talk with you!

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