Chengzhen L. Dai

Genome-microbiome interplay provides insight into the determinants of the human blood metabolome

The paper analyzes the genetic and microbiome contributions to blood metabolite variation across 2,049 individuals, finding that over 60% of metabolites are associated with either genetics or the microbiome, with some showing interaction effects.

Microbial Species Abundance Distributions Guide Human Population Size Estimation from Sewage Microbiomes

This paper introduces MicrobiomeCensus, an algorithm to estimate human population size from sewage samples using microbial taxon abundance distributions, showing it outperforms generic algorithms in simulations and field data.

Tracking strains predicts personal microbiomes and reveals recent adaptive evolution

The paper introduces StrainTrack, a method to track bacterial strains in metagenomes and identifies shared strains between twins.

Longitudinal wastewater sampling in buildings reveals temporal dynamics of metabolites

The paper uses longitudinal wastewater sampling to analyze metabolite temporal dynamics across buildings, revealing distinct feature temporal dynamics and enabling building classification.

Population histories of the United States revealed through fine-scale migration and haplotype analysis

This study uses genetic and geographic data to analyze migration patterns and population structure in the US, revealing substructure and demographic history among different groups.

Genes with high network connectivity are enriched for disease heritability

The paper assesses gene network connectivity's role in disease heritability using LD score regression and finds that network annotations are enriched but largely explained by regulatory annotations.