Three-dimensional microbiome and metabolome cartography of a diseased human lung
Cell host & microbe, 2017•cell.com
Our understanding of the spatial variation in the chemical and microbial makeup of an entire
human organ remains limited, in part due to the size and heterogeneity of human organs
and the complexity of the associated metabolome and microbiome. To address this
challenge, we developed a workflow to enable the cartography of metabolomic and
microbiome data onto a three-dimensional (3D) organ reconstruction built off radiological
images. This enabled the direct visualization of the microbial and chemical makeup of a …
human organ remains limited, in part due to the size and heterogeneity of human organs
and the complexity of the associated metabolome and microbiome. To address this
challenge, we developed a workflow to enable the cartography of metabolomic and
microbiome data onto a three-dimensional (3D) organ reconstruction built off radiological
images. This enabled the direct visualization of the microbial and chemical makeup of a …
Summary
Our understanding of the spatial variation in the chemical and microbial makeup of an entire human organ remains limited, in part due to the size and heterogeneity of human organs and the complexity of the associated metabolome and microbiome. To address this challenge, we developed a workflow to enable the cartography of metabolomic and microbiome data onto a three-dimensional (3D) organ reconstruction built off radiological images. This enabled the direct visualization of the microbial and chemical makeup of a human lung from a cystic fibrosis patient. We detected host-derived molecules, microbial metabolites, medications, and region-specific metabolism of medications and placed it in the context of microbial distributions in the lung. Our tool further created browsable maps of a 3D microbiome/metabolome reconstruction map on a radiological image of a human lung and forms an interactive resource for the scientific community.
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