Tarini Shankar Ghosh

• Ph.D (Biological Sciences)
• Assistant Professor at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT-Delhi)

Objective Ageing is accompanied by deterioration of multiple bodily functions and inflammation, which collectively contribute to frailty. We and others have shown that frailty co-varies with alterations in the gut microbiota in a manner accelerated by consumption of a restricted diversity diet. The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is associated with he...

Interaction between disease-microbiome associations and ageing has not been explored in detail. Here, using age/region-matched sub-sets, we analysed the gut microbiome differences across five major diseases in a multi-cohort dataset constituting more than 2500 individuals from 20 to 89 years old. We show that disease-microbiome associations display...

Modern lifestyles increase the risk of chronic diseases, in part by modifying the microbiome, but the health effects of lifestyles enforced on ethnic minorities are understudied1–3. Lifestyle affects the microbiome early in life, when the microbiome is assembled and the immune system is undergoing maturation4–6. Moreover, the influence of lifestyle...

Loss of diversity in the gut microbiome can persist for extended periods after antibiotic treatment, impacting microbiome function, antimicrobial resistance and probably host health. Despite widespread antibiotic use, our understanding of the species and metabolic functions contributing to gut microbiome recovery is limited. Using data from 4 disco...

The gut microbiome is a contributory factor in ageing-related health loss and in several non-communicable diseases in all age groups. Some age-linked and disease-linked compositional and functional changes overlap, while others are distinct. In this Review, we explore targeted studies of the gut microbiome of older individuals and general cohort st...

Endogenous intracellular allosteric modulators of GPCRs remain largely unexplored, with limited binding and phenotype data available. This gap arises from the lack of robust computational methods for unbiased cavity identification, cavity-specific ligand design, synthesis, and validation across GPCR topology. Here, we developed Gcoupler, an AI-driv...

Endogenous intracellular allosteric modulators of GPCRs remain largely unexplored, with limited binding and phenotype data available. This gap arises from the lack of robust computational methods for unbiased cavity identification, cavity-specific ligand design, synthesis, and validation across GPCR topology. Here, we developed Gcoupler, an AI-driv...

Background We designed this trial to evaluate efficacy of partial enteral nutrition (PEN) combined with exclusion diet (ED) in patients with mild to moderately active ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods In this quasi-experimental study, patients with mild-to-moderate UC (SCCAI=3-11) were allowed to choose either PEN+ED along with standard of care (SO...

Background: The complex interaction between the gut and urinary microbiota underscores the importance of understanding microbial dysbiosis in pediatric urinary tract infection (UTI). However, the literature on the gut–urinary axis in pediatric UTIs is limited. This systematic review aims to summarize the current literature on the roles of gut and u...

Aging involves metabolic changes that lead to reduced cellular fitness, yet the role of many metabolites in aging is unclear. Understanding the mechanisms of known geroprotective molecules reveals insights into metabolic networks regulating aging and aids in identifying additional geroprotectors. Here we present AgeXtend, an artificial intelligence...

The human microbiome is a sensor and modulator of physiology and homeostasis. Remarkable tractability underpins the promise of therapeutic manipulation of the microbiome. However, the definition of a normal or healthy microbiome has been elusive. This is in part due to the underrepresentation of minority groups and major global regions in microbiom...

Background/aims Crohn’s disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis (ITB) are gastrointestinal (GI) inflammatory disorders with overlapping clinical presentations but diverging etiologies. The study aims to decipher CD and ITB-associated gut dysbiosis signatures and identify disease-associated co-occurring modules to evaluate whether this dysbiosis si...

Human microbiomes are essential to health throughout the lifespan and are increasingly recognized and studied for their roles in metabolic, immunological and neurological processes. Although the full complexity of these microbial communities is not fully understood, their clinical and industrial exploitation is well advanced and expanding, needing...

The gut microbiome has been shown to be intricately linked with almost all aspects of our health and physiology. Understanding the mechanistic details of these links is key to utilising the gut microbiome as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target. In this context, an intriguing aspect is to understand how the gut microbiome mechanistically infl...

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a prevalent disorder of gut‐brain interaction without a reliable cure. Evidence suggests that an alteration of the gut microbiome may contribute to IBS pathogenesis, motivating the development of microbiome‐targeted therapies to alleviate IBS symptoms. However, IBS‐specific microbiome signatures are variable across...

Variations in the normal gut microbiome and the existence of context-dependent disease associations have confounded the identification of microbiome markers of health. A reliable indexing of taxa based on their association with host health and microbiome resilience could accelerate development of microbiome-based therapeutics including selection of...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent chronic disease worldwide, consisting of a broad spectrum of diseases such as simple steatosis (NAFL), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatic inflammation plays a key role in the pathophysiology of NAFLD. Inflammatory mediators...

Human aging is characterized by gut microbiome alteration and differential loss of gut commensal species associated with the onset of frailty. The administration of cultured commensal strains to replenish lost taxa could potentially promote healthy aging. To investigate the interaction of whole microbiomes and administered strains, we transplanted...

Introduction The chronic inflammatory skin disease Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is strongly associated with Crohn’s Disease (CD). HS and CD share clinical similarities and similar inflammatory pathways are upregulated in both conditions. Increased prevalence of inflammatory disease in industrialised nations has been linked to the Western diet. How...

Tarini Shankar Ghosh and Ana Maria Valdes evaluate the evidence for clinical effects of microbiome altering interventions on cardiometabolic traits

Although many recent studies have examined associations between the gut microbiome and COVID-19 disease severity in individual patient cohorts, questions remain on the robustness across international cohorts of the biomarkers they reported. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of eight shotgun metagenomic studies of COVID-19 patients (comprising 1,02...

Diet influences the pathogenesis and clinical course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The Mediterranean diet (MD) is linked to reductions in inflammatory biomarkers and alterations in microbial taxa and metabolites associated with health. We aimed to identify features of the gut microbiome that mediate the relationship between the MD and fecal...

Most of the variance in the human microbiome remains unexplained. Although an extensive list of individual lifestyles shaping the microbiome has been identified, important gaps in knowledge persist. Most human microbiome data are from individuals living in socioeconomically developed countries. This may have skewed the interpretation of microbiome...

Traditionally, the exogenous allosteric modulators of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have been extensively investigated due to their pharmacological significance. However, to date, only a handful of endogenous intracellular allosteric modulators are known, that too with inconclusive binding information and their associated phenotypes. This lim...

Exogenous allosteric modulators of GPCRs have been extensively investigated. To date, a few endogenous intracellular allosteric modulators are known with inconclusive binding information and their associated phenotypes. This limited understanding stems from the non-availability of robust computational techniques facilitating automated cavity identi...

The microbiome contributes to human development and maturation, and is essential for maintenance of health and prevention of disease. While the human genome encodes one’s identity, the microbiome – also individually unique – provides a window on one’s lifestyle and exposure to environmental variables. The microbiome thus serves as a biomarker of ho...

The gut microbiome is a modifier of disease risk because it interacts with nutrition, metabolism, immunity and infection. Aging-related health loss has been correlated with transition to different microbiome states. Microbiome summary indices including alpha diversity are apparently useful to describe these states but belie taxonomic differences th...

Recent advances in sequencing technologies, experimental protocols and approaches in data generation and analysis have enabled us to investigate the human microbiome at an unprecedented level of resolution. The current chapter aims to provide an understanding of the different computational and bioinformatic strategies adopted to answer the differen...

Protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and associated clinical sequelae requires well-coordinated metabolic and immune responses that limit viral spread and promote recovery of damaged systems. However, the role of the gut microbiota in regulating these responses has not been thoroughly investigate...

The colonic microbiome has been implicated in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC) and intestinal microbiome alterations are not confined to the tumour. Since data on whether the microbiome normalises or remains altered after resection of CRC are conflicting, we studied the colonic microbiota of patients after resection of CRC. We profiled t...

Protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and associated clinical sequelae requires well-coordinated metabolic and immune responses that limit viral spread and promote recovery of damaged systems. In order to understand potential mechanisms and interactions that influence coronavirus disease 2019 (COV...

Background The composition of the human milk microbiome is highly variable and multifactorial. Milk microbiota from various countries show striking differences. There is a paucity of data from healthy lactating Indian mothers. Research Aim To describe the milk microbiota of healthy North Indian women, using a culture-independent, targeted metageno...

Ageing is associated with characteristic changes including a gradual decline of physiological functions, inflamm-aging, sarcopenia, and the associated onset of multiple diseases. Another factor potentially contributing to enhanced susceptibility to multiple diseases is aging-associated alteration in the gut microbiome. These alterations include a l...

Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) harbor gut microbiomes that differ in structure and function from those of healthy individuals, suggesting this altered microbiome could contribute to tumorigenesis. Despite increasing evidence implicating the gut microbiome in CRC, the collective role of different microbial consortia in CRC carcinogenesis is u...

Use of microbiome-based biomarkers in diagnosis, prognosis, risk profiling, and precision therapy requires definition of a healthy microbiome in different populations. To determine features of the intestinal microbiota associated with health, however, we need improved microbiome profiling technologies, with strain-level resolution. We must also lea...

Lactobacilli are exploited extensively for food fermentation and biotechnology. Some food and gut isolates have been developed as probiotics, for which species that may be commensal to the human host are considered desirable. However, the robustness of defining original niches for lactobacilli - food, environment, the gut - is questionable, and cul...

Blueberry (BB) consumption is linked to improved health. The bioconversion of the polyphenolic content of BB by fermentative bacteria in the large intestine may be a necessary step for the health benefits attributed to BB consumption. The identification of specific gut microbiota taxa that respond to BB consumption and that mediate the bioconversio...

Background and aims: Although the gut microbiome of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) has been characterized, no study has characterized the gut microbiome in acute severe colitis (ASC). We compared the gut microbiome of patients with UC, ASC and healthy controls (HC). Methods: Patients with mild to moderate UC (n=24), ASC (n=19 with 21 epis...

The trillions of microorganisms residing in the human body display varying degrees of compositional and functional diversities within and between individuals and contribute significantly to host physiology and susceptibility to disease. Microbial species present in the vaginal milieu of reproductive age women showed a large personal component and v...

Lifestyle, obesity, and the gut microbiome are important risk factors for metabolic disorders. We demonstrate in 1,976 subjects of a German population cohort (KORA) that specific microbiota members show 24-h oscillations in their relative abundance and identified 13 taxa with disrupted rhythmicity in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Cross-validated predictio...

Background: Key aspects of microbiome research are the accurate identification of taxa and the profiling of their functionality. Amplicon profiling based on the 16S ribosomal DNA sequence is a ubiquitous technique to identify and profile the abundance of the various taxa. However, it does not provide information on their encoded functionality. Pre...

To combat the epidemic increase in Type-2-Diabetes (T2D), risk factors need to be identified. Diet, lifestyle and the gut microbiome are among the most important factors affecting metabolic health. We demonstrate in 1,976 subjects of a prospective population cohort that specific gut microbiota members show diurnal oscillations in their relative abu...

Key aspects of microbiome research are accurate identification of taxa followed by the profiling of their functionality. Amplicon profiling based on the 16S ribosomal DNA sequence is a ubiquitous technique to identify and profile the abundances of the various taxa. However, it does not provide information on their encoded functionality. Predictive...

The Bay of Bengal is known as the epicenter for seeding several devastating cholera outbreaks across the globe. Vibrio cholerae, the etiological agent of cholera, has extraordinary competency to acquire exogenous DNA by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and adapt them into its genome for structuring metabolic processes, developing drug resistance, and...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among bacterial species that resides in complex ecosystems is a natural phenomenon. Indiscriminate use of antimicrobials in healthcare, livestock, and agriculture provides an evolutionary advantage to the resistant variants to dominate the ecosystem. Ascendency of resistant variants threatens the efficacy of most, if...

Background Although the gut microbiome of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) has been characterised, there has been no study of gut microbial diversity in patients with acute severe colitis (ASC). The present study compared the gut microbiome of patients with UC, ASC, and healthy controls (HC). Methods Patients with mild-to-moderate UC (n = 23)...

Background Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The purpose of the present study was to discriminate the Indian CAD patients with or without T2DM by using multiple pathophysiological biomarkers. Methods Using sensitive multiplex protein assays, we assessed 4...

The diversity and basic functional attributes of the gut microbiome of healthy Indians is not well understood. This study investigated the gut microbiome of three Indian communities: individuals residing in rural and urban (n = 49) sea level Ballabhgarh areas and in rural high altitude areas of Leh, Ladakh in North India (n = 35). Our study reveale...

Dysbiosis in the gut microbiome due to antibiotic usage can persist for extended periods of time, impacting host health and increasing the risk for pathogen colonization. The specific factors associated with variability in gut microbiome recovery remain unknown. Using data from 4 different cohorts in 3 continents comprising >500 microbiome profiles...

Collinsella aerofaciens , a rod-shaped nonmotile obligate anaerobe, is the most abundant actinobacterium in the gastrointestinal tract of healthy humans. An altered abundance of C. aerofaciens may be linked with several health disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome. In the present study, we report the complete genome sequence of C. aerofacie...

Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is the most abundant (~4%) member of the phylum Firmicutes found in the colon of healthy humans. It is a strict anaerobe and plays an important role in intestinal homeostasis. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of F. prausnitzii strain Indica.

The gastric microbiome is suspected to have a role in the causation of diseases by Helicobacter pylori. Reports on their relative abundance vis-à-vis H. pylori are available from various ethnic and geographic groups, but little is known about their interaction patterns. Endoscopic mucosal biopsy samples from the gastric antrum and corpus of 39 pati...

Emergence of antimicrobial resistant Gram-negative bacteria has created a serious global health crisis and threatens the effectiveness of most, if not all, antibiotics commonly used to prevent and treat bacterial infections. There is a dearth of detailed studies on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) patterns in India. Here, we have is...

Megasphaera elsdenii has been previously reported in the gut of ruminating animals. Its role as an animal probiotic is being investigated, specifically from the perspective of enhancing animal productivity. Herein, we report the draft genome sequence of M. elsdenii strain indica isolated from the stool sample of a healthy Indian subject.

Bifidobacterium longum , a Gram-positive rod-shaped anaerobic bacterium, inhabits the human gastrointestinal tract and contributes significantly to oligosaccharide production, amino acid metabolism, and protection against intestinal inflammation. Here, we report the whole-genome sequence of B. longum , which was isolated from the gastrointestinal t...

Prevotella copri, a Gram-negative anaerobic rod-shaped bacterium, is frequently associated with the human gastrointestinal tract and influences host physiology, immunity, and metabolic pathways. In the present study, we report the draft genome sequence of P. copri isolated from the gut of a healthy Indian adult.

Windows executable of Community-Analyzer

Ever-increasing demands of mungbean consumption, wide eco-geographical variations and inadequate achievements through conventional breeding necessitate comprehensive assessment of genetic variability coupled with population patterning. In the present work 30 mungbean landraces of the Odisha State of India representing four different geographical re...

Humans are exposed to numerous xenobiotics, a majority of which are in the form of pharmaceuticals. Apart from human enzymes, recent studies have indicated the role of the gut bacterial community (microbiome) in metabolizing xenobiotics. However, little is known about the contribution of the plethora of gut microbiome in xenobiotic metabolism. The...

List of selected drugs and bacterial genera capable of metabolizing them (information obtained from literature), along with their group affiliations. (PDF)

Details of validation tests performed to check reliability and accuracy of the alignment based filtering parameters. (PDF)

List of taxonomic families and their preferences for three different groups (Least versatile xenobiotic metabolizers or G1; Intermediately versatile xenobiotic metabolizers or G2; Highly versatile xenobiotic metabolizers or G3) along with their cluster affiliations. (PDF)

List of EC numbers and KO IDs of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes along with the pathways in which they function. (PDF)

List of metagenomic samples along with their regional affiliations and age groups. (PDF)

Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) events, initially thought to be rare in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, have recently been shown to be involved in the acquisition of virulence operons in M. tuberculosis. We have developed a new partitioning framework based HGT prediction algorithm, called Grid3M, and applied the same for the prediction of HGTs in Mycoba...

This study describes the community composition and functions of the microbiome associated with the mucus of the coral Fungia echinata based on metagenomic approach. Metagenome sequence data showed a dominance of the class Gammaproteobacteria followed by Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Flavobacteriia, Bacilli, and Clost...

Background: Factors like ethnicity, diet and age of an individual have been hypothesized to play a role in determining the makeup of gut microbiome. In order to investigate the gut microbiome structure as well as the inter-microbial associations present therein, we have performed a comprehensive global comparative profiling of the structure (compo...

Motivation: Carbohydrate Active enzyme (CAZyme) families, encoded by human gut microflora, play a crucial role in breakdown of complex dietary carbohydrates into components that can be absorbed by our intestinal epithelium. Since nutritional wellbeing of an individual is dependent on the nutrient harvesting capability of the gut microbiome, it is...

This study describes microbial diversity in four tropical hot springs representing moderately thermophilic environments (temperature range: 40–58°C; pH: 7.2–7.4) with discrete geochemistry. Metagenome sequence data showed a dominance of Bacteria over Archaea; the most abundant phyla were Chloroflexi and Proteobacteria, although other phyla were als...