case studies

Public-data walkthroughs in Forge — preprocessing, statistics, multi-omics integration, and pathway analysis on real biological questions.

Each case study is a real published dataset loaded into Forge and walked through end-to-end: data ingestion, QC, preprocessing, statistical analysis, and pathway context via the GIZMO knowledge graph. Register for a free account to explore the data interactively.


Gut Microbiome & Metabolomics

These studies pair fecal metabolomics with shotgun metagenomics from the Borenstein Lab curated resource. Each is loaded as a multi-omics project in Forge with both assays aligned by sample ID.

Study Condition n Highlights Publication Explore
Franzosa IBD 2019 IBD (CD / UC / Control) 220 Multi-omics integration, MCIA, DIABLO group discrimination, cross-assay network Nature Microbiology ↗ Forge →
Yachida CRC 2019 CRC stages (Healthy → Stage IV) 347 Stage-wise differential abundance, volcano plot, correlation network, GIZMO pathway enrichment Nature Medicine ↗ Forge →
iHMP IBDMDB 2019 IBD (CD / UC / nonIBD) 382 Longitudinal multi-omics, trajectory analysis, time-course differential abundance Nature ↗ Forge →
Mars IBS 2020 IBS subtypes (IBS-C / IBS-D / Healthy) 444 Longitudinal analysis, subset-specific metabolic trajectories, SNF subtype discovery Cell ↗ Forge →
Kim Adenomas 2020 Colorectal adenomas vs. Control ~100 Early CRC biomarkers, fecal metabolomics + microbiome, differential abundance CGH ↗ Forge →
Sinha CRC 2016 Colorectal cancer vs. Healthy 131 Fecal metabolomics, CRC biomarker identification, correlation network analysis PLOS ONE ↗ Forge →
Erawijantari Gastric Cancer 2020 Post-gastrectomy vs. Healthy 96 Surgical intervention effects on gut ecology, differential microbiome-metabolome co-variation Gut ↗ Forge →
Wang ESRD 2020 End-stage renal disease vs. Control 287 Uremic solute profiling, microbiome dysbiosis in renal failure, pathway enrichment Nature Medicine ↗ Forge →
Jacobs IBD Families 2016 IBD-family members vs. Control 90 Subclinical metabolic signatures in at-risk relatives, early dysbiosis markers Cell Reports ↗ Forge →

Pediatric & Developmental

Study Condition n Highlights Publication Explore
Kostic Infants Diabetes 2015 T1D progression vs. Healthy (longitudinal) 103 Longitudinal microbiome development, trajectory analysis toward seroconversion Cell Host & Microbe ↗ Forge →
He Infants MFGM 2019 Formula type vs. Breastfed (infants) ~60 Dietary supplementation effects on infant gut metabolome, group comparison Microbiome ↗ Forge →
Wandro Preterms 2018 Preterm infants (longitudinal) ~50 Personalized microbiome-metabolome trajectories in NICU, NEC risk profiling mSystems ↗ Forge →
Kang Autism 2017 ASD vs. Typically developing 44 Gut-brain axis metabolomics, differential abundance, microbiome-metabolome correlation PLOS ONE ↗ Forge →

Cancer Cell Lines & Multi-Omics

Study Design n Highlights Publication Explore
CCLE Metabolomics Cancer cell lines across lineages 928 lines Bulk metabolomics + virtual metabolomics (scATMAN) + scRNA-seq; lineage-specific metabolic programs; multi-omics late-fusion Nature ↗ Forge →

These datasets have full annotated walkthroughs inside Forge — preprocessing configuration, analysis notes, and guided interpretation.

Case Study
Franzosa IBD 2019 (GeMMA-curated)

Gut microbiome and metabolome in inflammatory bowel disease. Multi-omics integration of 220 samples across CD, UC, and healthy controls.

Case Study
PRACHITi HIV Cohort (ST004581)

Untargeted LC-MS metabolomics of maternal heparin plasma from HIV+ and HIV- mothers in Pune, India. Metabolon platform, 100 samples.


All datasets are publicly available through their respective repositories (MetaboLights, Metabolomics Workbench, GEO, or the Borenstein Lab curated resource). Forge does not host or redistribute the raw data — it pulls from the original sources on demand. Publication links point to the journal DOI; open-access versions are available via PubMed Central where noted.

Want to see a specific study added? Get in touch or open an issue on GitHub.