Project title
MicrobialExplorer
Collaborators and funding
Breastfeeding and immunology group, the Kids Reseach Institute Australia
Contact(s)
Patricia.AgudeloRomero Patricia.AgudeloRomero@thekids.org.au
Project description and aims
MicrobialExplorer is a modular R Shiny application designed to make microbiome data analysis accessible to researchers without programming experience. The app provides an interactive interface for quality control, taxonomic composition, alpha and beta diversity, differential abundance, and functional analysis of 16S rRNA datasets.
The aim of this project is to host MicrobialExplorer on a dedicated VM so that it can be deployed as a publicly accessible web application for the research community at The Kids Research Institute Australia and collaborating institutions. This will allow researchers to upload their own processed microbiome data and generate publication-quality visualisations and statistics without needing to write code, lowering the barrier to entry for microbiome data interpretation.
The app is currently under active development, with modules for QC, composition, alpha diversity, beta diversity, and differential abundance completed, and a functional analysis module in progress. The broader impact includes supporting reproducible, standardised analysis workflows across multiple cohorts and projects at TKI, and forms part of a planned methods publication.
How is ABLeS supporting this work?
This work is supported through the Production Bioinformatics scheme provided by ABLeS.
Expected outputs enabled by participation in ABLeS
A publicly hosted instance of MicrobialExplorer, accessible via a web URL for use by researchers at The Kids Research Institute Australia and external collaborators. The application and its source code will be maintained on GitHub (agudeloromero/MicrobialExplorer) for transparency and reproducibility. A methods publication describing the application is also planned (target journal TBC).
Hosting MicrobialExplorer through ABLeS will also support upcoming funding applications, including an ARC Future Fellowship and WA Department of Health grant opportunities.
These details have been provided by project members at project initiation. For more information on the project, please consult the contact(s) or project links above.