Biomedical subjects

Steven Robbins

Publications and source records attributed to Steven Robbins.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

The planktonic microbiome of the Great Barrier Reef.

Large genome databases have markedly improved our understanding of marine microorganisms1-5. Although these resources have focused on prokaryotes, genomes from many dominant marine lineages, such as Pelagibacter and Prochlorococcus, are conspicuously underrepresented. Here we present the Great Barrier Reef Microbial Genomes Database (GBR-MGD), comprising 5,283 prokaryotic genomes obtained from Great Barrier Reef seawater samples using Nanopore and Illumina sequencing, including a collection of high-quality genomes of underrepresented groups. We show that standard short-read assemblies miss these populations owing to a combination of strain heterogeneity and low-GC-percentage sequencing bias. The GBR-MGD also comprises 20 chromosome-level picoeukaryote and 808,585 viral genomes, including a newly described clade of marine Crassvirales. We demonstrate the utility of the GBR-MGD to identify indicator taxa that can reliably predict the effects of reef management practices, such as the establishment of marine protected zones.

Bacteria↗

PubMed2006

An unbiased iterative group registration template for cortical surface analysis.

Accurate alignment of explicit surface representations of human cerebral cortices is necessary in order to compare local individual differences in cortical morphometric measurements (thickness, surface area, gyrification, etc.) in both normal and clinical populations. This paper presents a methodology for developing unbiased, high resolution iterative registration templates from a group of 222 subject hemispheres and shows that the resulting template provides better alignment of a separate set of test data than single-subject templates. It demonstrates that between 30 and 50 subjects are required to generate a stable iterative template. It also explores the way in which fold variants in registration templates affect the quality of registration. Finally, it shows that hemisphere-specific group registration templates systematically better register subject hemispheres of the same laterality, underlining the need to develop templates free of hemisphere bias for asymmetry analysis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Tuning and comparing spatial normalization methods.

Spatial normalization is a key process in cross-sectional studies of brain structure and function using MRI, fMRI, PET and other imaging techniques. A wide range of 2D surface and 3D image deformation algorithms have been developed, all of which involve design choices that are subject to debate. Moreover, most have numerical parameters whose value must be specified by the user. This paper proposes a principled method for evaluating design choices and choosing parameter values. This method can also be used to compare competing spatial normalization algorithms. We demonstrate the method through a performance analysis of a nonaffine registration algorithm for 3D images and a registration algorithm for 2D cortical surfaces.

Algorithms↗