Human gut microbiome study design

General Discussion
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#human gut microbiome study design

I would like to design properly a gut microbiome study using 16S metodology and I am asking for guidelines on how many samples, which confounding factors are importante tò be controlled and how. I would appreciate your kind suggestions very much. Thanks a lot

Michela

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Hi @MichelaRiba ,

It sounds like you need a collaborator to design the study with you. Answering questions like this usually requires involving a biostatistician and/or bioinformatician in a study, and it often requires involving them during the study as well, not only during study design.

Questions like this are also not so simple to answer — a proper power analysis and statistical design requires knowledge of the study etc, and a substantial amount of time to plan. You should find your local biostatistician and/or bioinformatician to discuss these problems! Or if there is none, an external collaborator who can help design the study with you.

But I would recommend this paper for general information about designing a microbiome study:

Good luck!

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Hi,

thanks for the kind answer, indeed I am a bioinformatician! Anyhow right because of that I was wondering if some discussion is ongoing about experimental design. I have seen more recent papers discussing confusing factors such as Diet, Antibiotics, Age, ...as well as suggesting power calculation anyhow not in high impact journals and to my personal experience maybe limited I see that the experimental design phase is a crucial one.