CHAMP delivers accurate taxonomic profiles of the prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and bacteriophages in the human microbiome

Abstract

Introduction Accurate taxonomic profiling of the human microbiome composition is crucial for linking microbial species to health outcomes. Therefore, we created the Clinical Microbiomics Human Microbiome Profiler (CHAMP), a comprehensive tool designed for the profiling of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses across all body sites. Methods CHAMP uses a reference database derived from 30,382 human microbiome samples, covering 6,567 prokaryotic and 244 eukaryotic species, as well as 64,003 viruses. We benchmarked CHAMP against established profiling tools (MetaPhlAn 4, Bracken 2, mOTUs 3, and Phanta) using a diverse set of in silico metagenomes and DNA mock communities. Results CHAMP demonstrated unparalleled species recall, F1 score, and significantly reduced false positives compared to all other tools benchmarked. The false positive relative abundance (FPRA) for CHAMP was, on average, 50-fold lower than the second-best performing profiler. CHAMP also proved to be more robust than other tools at low sequencing depths, highlighting its application for low biomass samples. Discussion Taken together, this establishes CHAMP as a best-in-class human microbiome profiler of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and viruses in diverse and complex communities across low and high biomass samples. CHAMP profiling is offered as a service by Clinical Microbiomics A/S and is available for a fee at https://cosmosidhub.com .