Spinal Cord Injury Microbiome & Virome

Longitudinal microbiome, virome, and phage-host dynamics following spinal cord injury.

Overview

A longitudinal study examining microbiome, virome, phage–host, and mobile-genetic-element dynamics following spinal cord injury (SCI), an area where gut microbial disruption is thought to influence recovery and health outcomes.

Scientific or practical problem

Spinal cord injury is associated with disruption of the gut microbiome, but how virome and phage–host dynamics change over time, and how mobile genetic elements move through the community post-injury, is not well characterized.

My role

Bioinformatics/statistical analysis support for longitudinal microbiome and virome profiling.

Dataset or data type

Longitudinal microbiome/virome sequencing samples from an SCI cohort or model system. (Specific cohort details withheld pending publication.)

Methods and technologies

• Longitudinal microbiome and virome profiling
• Phage–host linkage prediction
• Mobile genetic element detection
• Time-series statistical analysis

Workflow diagram

flowchart LR
  A[Longitudinal samples] --> B[Microbiome + virome profiling]
  B --> C[Phage-host linkage]
  B --> D[Mobile element detection]
  C --> E[Temporal dynamics analysis]
  D --> E

Major results or outputs

Not yet public — analysis is ongoing.

Challenges and decisions

Longitudinal study designs require careful handling of repeated-measures structure (e.g., mixed-effects models) rather than treating timepoints as independent samples.

Publications

Not yet published.

Code and documentation

Not yet publicly released.

Collaborators

Collaborative biomedical research project; specific collaborator identities withheld pending publication.

Current status

Ongoing.

Limitations or confidentiality note

This description is intentionally generalized. No unpublished results or identifying participant/collaborator information are shown.