Category Archives: Microbiome

The Human Microbiome Project Was About Non-Diseased People, Not ‘Normal’ Ones

Posted on June 21, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

After reading this article by Gina Kolata and this post from the Knoepfler Blog, it seems there’s some confusion about how the Human Microbiome Project (‘HMP’) was designed to look at “normal” people. Having been involved in the project pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Microbiome | Comments Off on The Human Microbiome Project Was About Non-Diseased People, Not ‘Normal’ Ones

Where Did the Term ‘Core Microbiome’ Come From?

Posted on September 19, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

In an excellent post about the vaginal microbiome (the microbes that in the vagina), Dr. Rad asks: I wonder if the idea of a ‘core microbiome’ came from Lourens Baas Becking’s oft-quoted idea in microbial ecology that ‘Everything is everywhere, … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology, Genomics, Microbiology, Microbiome, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

A Handy Transformation for Microbiome Data

Posted on August 9, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

Handling non-normal frequency data that also have zeros.
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Posted in Ecology, Microbiome, Statistics | 10 Comments

You Know the Human Microbiome Has Made It Big When…

Posted on May 11, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

…someone makes an animated cartoon about it.
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Posted in Microbiome | 1 Comment

The Fifty Most Sequenced Bacterial Genomes

Posted on April 5, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

It’s (very) partially my fault.
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Posted in E. coli, Genomics, Microbiome | 3 Comments

Finally, Someone Is Allocating Genomics Resources the Right Way

Posted on March 31, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

Someone must have learned something from the last few years of microbiome work…
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Microbiome Triumphalism and Misusing a Metaphor

Posted on March 29, 2011 by mikethemadbiologist

The human microbiome isn’t an organ. We have evolved to dampen the effects of the microbiome’s inherent variability on our bodies.
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Posted in Microbiology, Microbiome, Obesity | 5 Comments

I, For One, Welcome Our Gammaproteobacterial Arsenic-Using Overlords: Why Old School Microbiology Still Matter

Posted on December 6, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

This paper demonstrates the need for culturing organisms. That’s something we should emphasize when we train students and post-docs.
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Posted in Aliens! I Seen 'Em!, E. coli, Ecology, Genomics, Microbiology, Microbiome, NASA, News Media | Comments Off on I, For One, Welcome Our Gammaproteobacterial Arsenic-Using Overlords: Why Old School Microbiology Still Matter

How to Take a Government-Approved Poop

Posted on September 22, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

Ain’t science cool?
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Posted in Microbiome | 20 Comments

A Final Observation on the Human Microbiome Research Conference: An Underappreciated Breakthrough

Posted on September 15, 2010 by mikethemadbiologist

Hundreds of dollars per genome, and hundreds of genomes per week.
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Posted in Genomics, Microbiology, Microbiome | 3 Comments