ResMicroDb: a comprehensive database and analysis platform for the human respiratory microbiome.
Summary
ResMicroDb aggregates 106,464 respiratory microbiome samples across 514 projects with standardized taxonomic profiling and curated metadata. It provides 11,908 microbe–disease associations and built-in tools for composition visualization, sample similarity search, and cross-study analysis, enabling reproducible, large-scale comparative studies.
Key Findings
- Compiled 106,464 respiratory microbiome samples from 514 projects with standardized pipelines and 32 curated metadata fields.
- Reported 11,908 microbe–disease associations from 132 case–control studies.
- Provides three integrated analysis tools: composition visualization, sample similarity search, and cross-study analysis.
Clinical Implications
Standardized cross-study comparisons can accelerate identification of microbial signatures linked to respiratory diseases, informing diagnostics and potential microbiome-targeted interventions.
Why It Matters
As the largest curated respiratory microbiome repository with analysis utilities, ResMicroDb will underpin cross-cohort reproducibility, hypothesis generation, and biomarker discovery, likely becoming a widely cited community resource.
Limitations
- Heterogeneity of source studies and platforms may introduce residual batch effects despite harmonization.
- Cross-sectional nature and variable clinical metadata depth may limit causal inference.
Future Directions
Incorporate longitudinal datasets, multi-omics layers (metagenomics, metabolomics), and standardized clinical phenotyping to enable causal modeling and translational applications.
Study Information
- Study Type
- Database/Resource Study
- Research Domain
- Diagnosis
- Evidence Level
- IV - Large curated database and analytical platform; not a hypothesis-testing clinical study.
- Study Design
- OTHER