LAMarCK - Characterization of Diseases through Longitudinal Multi-Omics Analysis

The collaborative project LAMarCK focuses on improvements in the exploration of the human gut microbiome. The gut microbiome broadly refers to the entirety of microorganisms found in the intestines. It is now understood that the gut microbiome significantly influences the treatment of diseases such as colorectal cancer. To better comprehend the interplay between humans and the environment mediated by microbes in the context of diseases, extensive datasets known as longitudinal data sets are required for analysis. These datasets, primarily comprising time-series measurement data, are generated using Omics technologies and offer promising approaches in investigating these connections. They allow for a detailed examination of human genomes, transcriptomes, epigenomes, and microbiomes within human donors.

This is where LAMarCK comes into play, as despite the substantial amount of existing longitudinal Omics datasets, there currently lacks efficient computational tools to analyze molecular events over time. In particular, the integration of different Omics data types proves to be highly complex. Within the framework of the project, there is a plan to bridge this analysis gap by developing an innovative framework for longitudinal data analysis. This framework aims not only to simplify the integration of various datasets but also to enhance the performance of the underlying algorithms, thus enabling optimal utilization of the time-series data in the future.

The intention is to make the software development publicly accessible, so that researchers can benefit from it for various inquiries in the future.