PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This Phase I COBRE will create the Oklahoma Center for Microbiome Research (OCMR) to broadly address key principles and questions concerning microbiome structure and function. The overarching goal is to create the intellectual environment necessary to support five Research Project Leaders in Microbiome Science. Each project involves studies of strict anaerobes. This Phase I COBRE will provide cutting-edge tools to cultivate strict anaerobes by creating an Anaerobic Microbiology Research Core. Creating the Anaerobic Core will require alteration and renovation of existing space to accommodate the necessary new equipment and activities required to support the five Research Projects and the entire community of OSU microbiome researchers.