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Wang et al. Microbiome Res Rep. 2025;4:23 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/mrr.2024.94 Page 17 of 19

Financial support and sponsorship
This publication has emanated from research conducted with financial support from Science Foundation
Ireland (SFI) under Grant No. 12/RC/2273_P2 and 19/SP/6989. This publication has emanated from
research conducted with financial support of International Flavors and Fragances (IFF). Shuo Wang
(No.202006790046) is grateful for the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

Conflicts of interest
R. Paul Ross and Catherine Stanton served as Guest Editors for the Special Issue “Exploring the Infant
Microbiome: From Birth to Early Growth and Development.” In addition, R. Paul Ross is a Senior Editor,
Catherine Stanton is an Executive Editor, and Bo Yang is an Editorial Board member of Microbiome
Research Reports. All three individuals were not involved in any part of the editorial process for this
manuscript, including reviewer selection, manuscript handling, or decision making. The other authors
declared that there are no conflicts of interest.
discovery rate. Brief Bioinform. 2019;20:210-21. DOI
Ethical approval and consent to participate
Ethical approval was obtained from the Cork Teaching Hospitals Clinical Research Ethics Committee
(ethical approval reference: ECM 4 (q) 07/03/18). Written informed consent was obtained from all
participating mothers for both their own and their infants’ involvement in the study.

Availability of data and materials
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon
reasonable request.

Consent for publication
Not applicable

Copyright
© The Author(s) 2025.

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