Federal Grant Award Summary

Mayo Clinic received a $100,228 Project Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), awarded November 23, 2026, with completion targeted for June 30, 2029. The project develops and evaluates novel biostatistical methods specifically designed to address analytical challenges in human microbiome metagenomic data. The research focuses on improving robustness and reproducibility in microbiome studies that employ longitudinal designs and target less diverse body sites, which typically produce small, sparse, and highly variable datasets that complicate identification of reliable microbial biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

The project delivers two primary methodological products: (1) a simplified fixed-effects statistical model for longitudinal differential abundance analysis that improves robustness compared to existing mixed-effects approaches, particularly in small, sparse datasets; and (2) optimized techniques for addressing uneven sequencing effort through alternatives to standard rarefaction methods, including a novel extrapolation-based approach to retain samples with smaller library sizes. Development involves systematic evaluation through pseudo-simulated data, application to real-world datasets from endometrial and vaginal microbiome studies, and training of deep learning models to balance statistical power with false-positive control across varied sample types. These deliverables aim to enhance the reliability and efficiency of microbiome data analysis for the research community.