Merci M.H. Kusel

The paper analyzes bacterial diversity and strain dynamics in the infant respiratory microbiome using whole genome sequencing and metagenomics, revealing age-dependent shifts in dominant taxa and expanding reference genomes for airway microbes.

The paper identifies three distinct immune development trajectories in childhood using unsupervised clustering, revealing a high-risk atopic cluster associated with allergic diseases.

The paper tracks the upper airway microbiome changes in preschool children and links them to asthma-associated persistent wheeze, showing that bacterial shifts precede viral infections and symptoms in sensitized children.