FEAST: fast expectation-maximization for microbial source tracking
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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Cost-effective Method for Microbial Source Tracking Using Specific Human and Animal Viruses
Published on: December 3, 2011
Liat Shenhav1, Mike Thompson2, Tyler A Joseph3
1Department of Computer Science, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Abstract:
A major challenge of analyzing the compositional structure of microbiome data is identifying its potential origins. Here, we introduce fast expectation-maximization microbial source tracking (FEAST), a ready-to-use scalable framework that can simultaneously estimate the contribution of thousands of potential source environments in a timely manner, thereby helping unravel the origins of complex microbial communities ( https://github.com/cozygene/FEAST ). The information gained from FEAST may provide insight into quantifying contamination, tracking the formation of developing microbial communities, as well as distinguishing and characterizing bacteria-related health conditions.
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