Fuzzy zeros in percentile normalization method to correct for batch effects

We recently published a method to normalize data that corrects for batch effects and allows for pooling of raw data across studies. In this post, I want to discuss more about the important (but potentially confusing) aspect of our method, where we add noise to the zeros before performing the normalization. I’ve gotten a few …

What’s in your tap water? Microbial communities across drinking water systems.

Guest post by Melina Bautista (@qmbautista) and Ameet J. Pinto (@watermicrobe).    The provision of safe drinking water relies primarily on disinfection as a cornerstone for pathogen control. Since its full-scale implementation in the early 20th century, it has become the standard final treatment step to inactivate microorganisms in most drinking water treatment plants around …

Indoor Microbiome Meta-analysis

A new paper from Adams et al does a meta-analysis of indoor microbiome data to further characterize the microbial interactions within the indoor built environment. They used sequence data from four studies that covered South Korean homes, Colorado restroom surfaces, Colorado kitchen surfaces, and North Carolina homes, and found that communities were most similar between the type …