Title
ADMIRE: Association, causality and biomarker Discovery in translational MIcrobiome REsearch. (Research)
Abstract
The introduction of next generation sequencing technologies has pushed microbiome research to
previously unseen levels, opening a route towards improved sustainable crop production and
disease prevention and treatment. Existing data analysis methods, however, still fail to give
reliable and reproducible conclusions, because they insufficiently cope with the very specific data
characteristics (high zero frequency, overdispersion, compositional, ...). We aim to (1) develop
robust and flexible statistical methods for analysing clustered and longitudinal microbiome data,
(2) adapt causal mediation analysis methods to work with microbiome data and integrate machine
learning methods into the procedures, (3) develop informative visualisation tools for integrating
microbiome data with other (high-dimensional) data sources, and (4) develop statistical joint
models for integrating microbiome with other clinical outcome data for biomarker discovery. The
project also involves a pilot study for studying the effect of the plant microbiome on the fecal and
gut microbiome of mice and their effect on the immune response. Four PhD students will be
involved and for each PhD project, at least two supervisors from at least two different institutes will
be assigned.
Period of project
01 January 2021 - 31 December 2024