The focus of this thesis is to design, characterize, and apply novel computational methods and molecular systems to interrogate heterogeneous human gut microbiome-related phenomena. In Chapter 2, I design, implement, and characterize a method for embedding co-occurrence patterns derived from massive 16s amplicon datasets. I use this method to 1....
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is characterized by an accumulation of neutral lipids in the form of triglycerides and cholesterol esters accounting for >5% of liver weight. Excess neutral lipids accumulate in large lipid droplets, i.e., macrosteatosis, displacing the nucleus of cells. Current theory suggests neutral lipid accumulation is the...