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Updated: Jun 11, 2025
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Author Spotlight: Revolutionizing Research on Vaginal Microbiome Interactions Using a Vaginal Chip
Published on: February 16, 2024
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VMAP: Vaginal Microbiome Atlas during Pregnancy
Antonio Parraga-Leo1,2,3,4,5, Tomiko T Oskotsky1,2,3, Boris Oskotsky1,2
1Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States.
JAMIA Open
|September 30, 2024
Summary
The Vaginal Microbiome Atlas during Pregnancy (VMAP) offers interactive visualization of vaginal microbiome data from over 3,800 samples. This resource aids researchers in understanding pregnancy and its outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Microbiome research
- Reproductive health
- Data visualization
Background:
- The vaginal microbiome plays a crucial role in pregnancy outcomes.
- Understanding its dynamics is essential for maternal and infant health.
- Previous studies have generated fragmented data, limiting comprehensive analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create an interactive visualization tool for the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy.
- To facilitate the discovery of novel insights and hypothesis generation.
- To aggregate and standardize data from multiple studies.
Main Methods:
- Developed the Vaginal Microbiome Atlas during Pregnancy (VMAP) using R shiny.
- Aggregated data from 11 studies comprising 3880 samples from 1402 pregnant individuals.
- Utilized the open-source tool MaLiAmPi for data aggregation.
Main Results:
- VMAP visualizes diversity measures, VALENCIA community state types, and microbial composition (phylotypes, taxonomy).
- Data can be filtered by various categories for detailed analysis.
- Represents one of the largest and most geographically diverse aggregations of vaginal microbiome data in pregnancy.
Conclusions:
- VMAP serves as a user-friendly resource for analyzing vaginal microbiome data.
- It enhances understanding of pregnancies and associated outcomes.
- The tool is accessible online for researchers and non-R users.
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