A great number of diverse microorganisms inhabit the human body and are collectively referred to as the human microbiome. Until recently, the role of the human microbiome in maintaining human health was not fully appreciated. Today, however, research is beginning to elucidate associations between perturbations in the human microbiome and human disease and the factors that might be responsible for the perturbations. Studies have indicated that the human microbiome could be affected by environmental chemicals or could modulate exposure to environmental chemicals. Environmental Chemicals, the Human Microbiome, and Health Risk presents a research strategy to improve our understanding of the interactions between environmental chemicals and the human microbiome and the implications of those interactions for human health risk. This report identifies barriers to such research and opportunities for collaboration, highlights key aspects of the human microbiome and its relation to health, describes potential interactions between environmental chemicals and the human microbiome, reviews the risk-assessment framework and reasons for incorporating chemicalâ€"microbiome interactions.

It is difficult to imagine that the statistical analysis of compositional data has been a major issue of concern for more than 100 years. It is even more difficult to realize that so many statisticians and users of statistics are unaware of the particular problems affecting compositional data, as well as their solutions. The issue of ``spurious correlation'', as the situation was phrased by Karl Pearson back in 1897, affects all data that measures parts of some whole, such as percentages, proportions, ppm and ppb. Such measurements are present in all fields of science, ranging from geology, biology, environmental sciences, forensic sciences, medicine and hydrology. This book presents the history and development of compositional data analysis along with Aitchison's log-ratio approach. Compositional Data Analysis describes the state of the art both in theoretical fields as well as applications in the different fields of science. Key Features: Reflects the state-of-the-art in compositional data analysis. Gives an overview of the historical development of compositional data analysis, as well as basic concepts and procedures. Looks at advances in algebra and calculus on the simplex. Presents applications in different fields of science, including, genomics, ecology, biology, geochemistry, planetology, chemistry and economics. Explores connections to correspondence analysis and the Dirichlet distribution. Presents a summary of three available software packages for compositional data analysis. Supported by an accompanying website featuring R code. Applied scientists working on compositional data analysis in any field of science, both in academia and professionals will benefit from this book, along with graduate students in any field of science working with compositional data.

Technologies collectively called omics enable simultaneous measurement of an enormous number of biomolecules; for example, genomics investigates thousands of DNA sequences, and proteomics examines large numbers of proteins. Scientists are using these technologies to develop innovative tests to detect disease and to predict a patient's likelihood of responding to specific drugs. Following a recent case involving premature use of omics-based tests in cancer clinical trials at Duke University, the NCI requested that the IOM establish a committee to recommend ways to strengthen omics-based test development and evaluation. This report identifies best practices to enhance development, evaluation, and translation of omics-based tests while simultaneously reinforcing steps to ensure that these tests are appropriately assessed for scientific validity before they are used to guide patient treatment in clinical trials.

Although we can't usually see them, microbes are essential for every part of human life-indeed all life on Earth. The emerging field of metagenomics offers a new way of exploring the microbial world that will transform modern microbiology and lead to practical applications in medicine, agriculture, alternative energy, environmental remediation, and many others areas. Metagenomics allows researchers to look at the genomes of all of the microbes in an environment at once, providing a "meta" view of the whole microbial community and the complex interactions within it. It's a quantum leap beyond traditional research techniques that rely on studying-one at a time-the few microbes that can be grown in the laboratory. At the request of the National Science Foundation, five Institutes of the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Energy, the National Research Council organized a committee to address the current state of metagenomics and identify obstacles current researchers are facing in order to determine how to best support the field and encourage its success. The New Science of Metagenomics recommends the establishment of a "Global Metagenomics Initiative" comprising a small number of large-scale metagenomics projects as well as many medium- and small-scale projects to advance the technology and develop the standard practices needed to advance the field. The report also addresses database needs, methodological challenges, and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in supporting this new field.

Microbiome research has focused on microorganisms that live within the human body and their effects on health. During the last few years, the quantification of microbiome composition in different environments has been facilitated by the advent of high throughput sequencing technologies. The statistical challenges include computational difficulties due to the high volume of data; normalization and quantification of metabolic abundances, relative taxa and bacterial genes; high-dimensionality; multivariate analysis; the inherently compositional nature of the data; and the proper utilization of complementary phylogenetic information. This has resulted in an explosion of statistical approaches aimed at tackling the unique opportunities and challenges presented by microbiome data. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in statistical and informatics technologies for microbiome research. In addition to reviewing demonstrably successful cutting-edge methods, particular emphasis is placed on examples in R that rely on available statistical packages for microbiome data. With its wide-ranging approach, the book benefits not only trained statisticians in academia and industry involved in microbiome research, but also other scientists working in microbiomics and in related fields.

The book provides an overview on how the microbiome contributes to human health and disease. The microbiome has also become a burgeoning field of research in medicine, agriculture & environment. The readers will obtain profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems, medicine, agriculture & environment. The book may address several researchers, clinicians and scholars working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology. The application of new technologies has no doubt revolutionized the research initiatives providing new insights into the dynamics of these complex microbial communities and their role in medicine, agriculture & environment shall be more emphasized. Drawing on broad range concepts of disciplines and model systems, this book primarily provides a conceptual framework for understanding these human-microbe, animal-microbe & plant-microbe, interactions while shedding critical light on the scientific challenges that lie ahead. Furthermore this book explains why microbiome research demands a creative and interdisciplinary thinking—the capacity to combine microbiology with human, animal and plant physiology, ecological theory with immunology, and evolutionary perspectives with metabolic science.This book provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the fundamental principles of microbiome science, an exciting and fast-emerging new discipline that is reshaping many aspects of the life sciences. These microbial partners can also drive ecologically important traits, from thermal tolerance to diet in a typical immune system, and have contributed to animal and plant diversification over long evolutionary timescales. Also this book explains why microbiome research presents a more complete picture of the biology of humans and other animals, and how it can deliver novel therapies for human health and new strategies.

The Food Forum convened a public workshop on February 22-23, 2012, to explore current and emerging knowledge of the human microbiome, its role in human health, its interaction with the diet, and the translation of new research findings into tools and products that improve the nutritional quality of the food supply. The Human Microbiome, Diet, and Health: Workshop Summary summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop. Over the two day workshop, several themes covered included: The microbiome is integral to human physiology, health, and disease. The microbiome is arguably the most intimate connection that humans have with their external environment, mostly through diet. Given the emerging nature of research on the microbiome, some important methodology issues might still have to be resolved with respect to undersampling and a lack of causal and mechanistic studies. Dietary interventions intended to have an impact on host biology via their impact on the microbiome are being developed, and the market for these products is seeing tremendous success. However, the current regulatory framework poses challenges to industry interest and investment.