Genome sequencing of Influenza virus from the human Upper Respiratory Tract

Our present knowledge of the nature and extent of the microbial members of the Upper Respiratory Tract (URT) is limited. An effort to establish these basic components is ongoing as part of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a NIH Roadmap initiative. To complement results from the 'normal' microbiome obtained through the HMP project; we aim to study the microbiome of the URT of humans with mild to severe infection with Influenza. As part of this project we will sequence around 400 Influenza virus samples from the URT of individuals. Linking of the genomic data to the microbiome data will help us understand the role if any, microbiome plays in the disease severity.