The millennium bugs

Abstract

In the first decade of the new millennium, microorganisms continued to have a disproportionately large impact on biomedical science, not so much because they cause disease but because they provide tractable models in which to study fundamental cellular processes. They have featured in Nobel Prizes every year this century except 2004 and 2010. Of the nine non-mammalian model organisms recognised in the first years of the millennium by the NIH for their value in biomedical research, four were microbes. Collectively, a nation’s effort in studying these model organisms correlates more strongly with its worldwide scientific impact than research in other fields. Compared to other fields, research on model organisms generates three to four times more publications per funding dollar and is three to four times more likely to be sufficiently significant for publication in Nature or Science. Given the scientific impact and value for money of model organism research, Australia in the third millennium should invest significantly more funds in this type of research.