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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health concern, with the potential to render many of our current antibiotics ineffective.    A recent study draws conclusions on the potential role of livestock waste and treated wastewater as reservoirs for AMR. The study investigated the presence and abundance of AMR genes in livestock waste and treated...

Gulf War illness (GWI) is a chronic condition significantly affecting veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War.    A range of symptoms, including fatigue, pain, cognitive impairment, and gastrointestinal issues characterize GWI. Despite extensive research, the underlying causes of GWI are still not fully understood.   A recent study sheds some light on the...

  To evaluate the impact of ports on the biodiversity in their vicinity, a recent study collected coral reef sediment samples from the vicinity of Port Everglades in South Florida, and performed 16S rRNA sequencing on the samples.    CosmosID analyzed the 16S rRNA gene-based microbiome community data to illustrate the impact of port activities...

Until recently, there has been a gap in information about the temporal changes of the gut microbiome associated with malaria infection.    To fill that gap, a recent study–  where shotgun sequences were analyzed by the CosmosID-HUB Microbiome Platform – used 16S rRNA and shotgun sequencing to analyze the rectal samples from experimentally malaria-infected macaques...

The gut microbiome is critical to good animal health and environmental factors are influential on the microbiome. Environmental variations such as altered ecosystems, degraded habitats, deforestation or captivity may have negative impacts on host-microbiome communities, and cripple host fitness, making it a vital issue for ecology research.   In this blog, we will explore the...

Obesity prevalence has been skyrocketing since the 1970s globally, with the Eastern Mediterranean region being no exception.   For instance, obesity is prevalent in 20% of Saudi Arabian adults, with an elevated prevalence in females. The increase of obesity rates in adult females of reproductive age is particularly worrying, given new evidence suggesting links between...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease targeting the central nervous system with a prevalence of around 2.8 million people globally. The etiopathogenesis of MS is multifactorial and involves environmental factors. Amongst the environmental factors, the gut microbiota is a key player modulating MS. Dietary habits drive the gut microbiome. Thus, dietary shifts change...

Obesity is a health problem that increases mortality and morbidity globally. Although there have been developments in therapeutic obesity treatments, the prevalence of obesity has increased. Additionally, there have been developments in understanding the mechanisms underlying obesity. For example, recent evidence highlights the gut microbiota as a risk factor for obesity. However, there is limited...

Antibiotic use is widespread and a key weapon against bacterial infections. However, their behavior against complex microbial communities is still unknown, as they are typically developed against distinct, individual pathogens. Understanding the effect of specific antibiotics on microbial communities is important for the effective treatment of polymicrobial infections, such as those found in cystic fibrosis...

Nasal swabs and saliva are conventional methods for detection of SARS-CoV-2, but the virus is also present in feces. Therefore, fecal material in wastewater samples could be used to track community dynamics of the virus. To do that, Brumfield et al. (2022) collected wastewater samples from manholes and then processed them for microbial genome sequencing...