Two University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have been awarded more than $1 million as part of the multidisciplinary university research initiative from the United States Army Research Office to better understand microbial communities. Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, and Ophelia Venturelli, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, are co-investigators on the project, which involves more than $6 million and seven faculty members at universities across the United States.