Segata, NicolaIzard, Jacques GeorgesWaldron, LeviGevers, DirkMiropolsky, LarisaGarrett, WendyHuttenhower, Curtis2016-04-262011Segata, Nicola, Jacques Izard, Levi Waldron, Dirk Gevers, Larisa Miropolsky, Wendy S Garrett, and Curtis Huttenhower. 2011. “Metagenomic Biomarker Discovery and Explanation.” Genome Biology 12 (6): R60. doi:10.1186/gb-2011-12-6-r60.1465-6906http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:26835958This study describes and validates a new method for metagenomic biomarker discovery by way of class comparison, tests of biological consistency and effect size estimation. This addresses the challenge of finding organisms, genes, or pathways that consistently explain the differences between two or more microbial communities, which is a central problem to the study of metagenomics. We extensively validate our method on several microbiomes and a convenient online interface for the method is provided at http://huttenhower.sph.harvard.edu/lefse/.en-USJournal Article2016-04-2610.1186/gb-2011-12-6-r60