COHR is part of the UW Interaction Labs Project, a multidisciplinary effort to work with an informal urban community living in floating houses on the Amazon River in Iquitos, Peru, where community members have difficulty getting access to fresh vegetables and other healthy food.
This food is important both for humans and for the animals that live on the floating houses with the residents.
By helping the community plant gardens (both on land and floating), the Interaction Lab project hopes to improve community health. COHR is studying whether the intervention is changing the gut microbiome of community residents in a healthy way, potentially reducing the risk of diarrhea and breathing problems.
For more information: http://be.washington.edu/uw-researchers-improve-a-floating-community-in-the-amazon/