The BWH/Harvard Cohorts Biorepository is undertaking a vast amount of microbiome research, and we are pleased to share our first publication from this work: Relating the metatranscriptome and metagenome of the human gut.

The paper discusses a protocol that allows subjects to collect microbiome samples at home and ship them to laboratories for multiple different types of molecular analysis. The study found that measurements of microbial species, gene, and gene transcript composition within self-collected samples were consistent across sampling methods. And subsequent sample analysis revealed interesting similarities and differences between the measured functional potential and functional activity of the human microbiome.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Jun 3;111(22):E2329-38. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1319284111. Epub 2014 May 19. Relating the metatranscriptome and metagenome of the human gut. Franzosa EA1, Morgan XC1, Segata N2, Waldron L2, Reyes J2, Earl AM3, Giannoukos G3, Boylan MR4, Ciulla D3, Gevers D3, Izard J5, Garrett WS6, Chan AT7, Huttenhower C8.