About the Authors

Manasi S. Shah

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

manasishah86@gmail.com

Affiliations University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX, United States of America, Informatics, Second Genome, Inc, South San Francisco, CA, United States of America, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America, Texas Children’s Microbiome Center, Department of Pathology, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, United States of America

Todd DeSantis

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Informatics, Second Genome, Inc, South San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Jose-Miguel Yamal

Roles Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX, United States of America

Tiffany Weir

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States of America

Elizabeth P. Ryan

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University/Colorado School of Public Health, Fort Collins, CO, United States of America

Julia L. Cope

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America, Texas Children’s Microbiome Center, Department of Pathology, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, United States of America, Diversigen, Inc, Houston, TX, United States of America

Emily B. Hollister

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States of America, Texas Children’s Microbiome Center, Department of Pathology, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, United States of America, Diversigen, Inc, Houston, TX, United States of America

Competing Interests

We have the following interests. This study was funded in part by Second Genome Inc., the employed of Manasi S. Shah and Todd DeSantis. Julia L. Cope and Emily B. Hollister are employed by Diversigen Inc. Manasi S. Shah, Todd DeSantis and Emily B. Hollister are named inventors on one pending PCT patent application number PCT/US2018/022862 which was filed on March 16, 2018. This patent is based on similar concept of identifying biomarkers for colorectal cancer, however is focused on fecal biomarkers (instead of tissue) from different datasets. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.