What I Did
I analyzed the number of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes and abundances of varying microbial phylogeny in preterm infant gut microbiomes across varying clinical factors. In addition, a control sample of toddler gut microbiomes was analyzed for AMR genes.
How You Can Help
This analysis could be continued by adding more samples to the analyzed sample size. There were ~200 samples available for the control dataset that could have been analyzed. Additionally, it would be interesting to cross-reference with other studies that had data available on mother and/or infant antibiotic use. Additionally, further taxonomy distribution analysis could be conducted on the control sample to get a “reference” healthy infant microbiome for older aged babies.
What I Did
I analyzed the gut microbiome in pre-term infants to identify any associations between antibiotic use in infants and/or mothers and the abundance of specific genus. I focused on specific species such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and oxytoca within the gut microbiome due to their association with nosocomial infections.
How You Can Help
Accounting for other clinical factors outside of antibiotics use such as breastfeeding versus formula to get a more accurate analysis. Additional, further taxonomy distribution analysis could be conducted on the control sample to get a “reference” healthy infant microbiome for older aged babies.
What I did
Did the initial calculations for the AMR gene abundance for each sample in the infant dataset. From there I created four categories based on previous infant and mother antibiotic administration, sorted number of AMR genes into each and calculated the averages for each group to make a conclusion about the relationship between antibiotic use and AMR gene abundance.
How You Can Help
Accounting for other factors that influence AMR gene presence in the infant gut microbiome such as delivery method (vaginal vs. c-section) that may explain AMR genes that do not directly correlate to specific antibiotics given.