Ethical Legal and Social Dimensions of Human Microbiome Research

We propose an exploratory survey, parallel to the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), of the emergent ethical, legal, and social issues associated with human microbiome research. We will implement this study using in- depth interviews with key stakeholders in the HMP, including individuals who are recruited to the HMP but decline participation, study participants, and investigators and project leaders involved in planning for an conducting the first phases of the HMP. The overall goal of this project is to identify and analyze ethical, legal, and social issues related to human microbiome research and to develop ethically sound and empirically informed strategies for managing these issues in future research. This project has three Specific Aims: (1) Describe recruits and participants' ideas about the HMP (and participants' experiences of the HMP) as it relates to them physically, socially, and culturally and as it relates to their notions of health and disease, (2) Describe the ethical, legal, and social challenges of conducting the HMP from the perspective of study investigators and project leaders at the NIH, and (3) Provide a forum for interdisciplinary exchange with representative stakeholders (including study participants, members of the research team, and outside experts) to develop recommendations for the responsible management of ethical, legal, and social issues identified in Specific Aims 1 and 2. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) is a large study to learn more about the collections of bacteria, viruses and other tiny organisms that live in and on our bodies. We will interview three groups of people: (1) those who are asked to participate in the HMP but say no, in order find out why they said no, (2) those who decide to participate in the HMP, in order to explore their thoughts about the project and their experience with participating in the project, and (3) scientists who are conducting the HMP, in order to understand what ethical or social issues are related to this type of research. We will also host a workshop with members of our research team, study participants, and outside experts to discuss the issues that were identified in the interviews and develop recommendations for managing them.