PennCHOP Microbiome Program

Funds PennCHOP microbiome investigators through shared core facilities and annual pilot and feasibility grants for translational science.

The PennCHOP Microbiome Program is a joint research initiative of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Its mission is to understand the human microbiome and use that knowledge to improve health, with work spanning gut, airway, skin, and animal-model research.

The program operates six shared cores that support sequencing, gnotobiotic mouse work, acute biobanking, microbial culture and metabolomics, and human intervention studies. It also runs an annual Pilot and Feasibility Grant Program for Penn researchers, with awards up to $40,000. Successful projects are expected to use at least one program core and generate data that can support future R01 or P01 applications.

The program is a good fit for investigators who need specialized microbiome infrastructure and can turn pilot work into stronger external funding. Its co-directors come from both Penn and CHOP, and the review process favors projects that are collaborative, technically grounded, and able to produce publishable data from a defined microbiome question.