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Page 16 of 20 Linehan et al. Microbiome Res Rep. 2025;4:24 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/mrr.2024.92

Availability of data and materials
All 16S rRNA gene sequencing data have been deposited into the NCBI Sequence Read Archive, BioProject
ID SUB14944107. Other data will be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable
request.

Financial support and sponsorship
This research was supported by APC Microbiome Ireland, a research center funded by Science Foundation
Ireland (SFI), through the Irish Government’s National Development Plan (Grant Number. 12/RC/
2273_P2).

Conflicts of interest
Ross PR is a Senior Editor of the journal Microbiome Research Reports, and Stanton C is an Executive Editor
of the journal Microbiome Research Reports. Ross PR and Stanton C are also Guest Editors for the Special
Issue Exploring the Infant Microbiome: From Birth to Early Growth and Development. Ross PR and Stanton
studies. Nature. 2023;613:639-49. DOI PubMed PMC
C were not involved in any steps of editorial processing, notably including reviewer selection, manuscript
handling, or decision making. The other authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval and consent to participate
Ethical approval was obtained from the Cork Teaching Hospitals Clinical Research Ethics Committee
[ethical approval reference: ECM 4 (v) 12/08/14]. Informed consent has been obtained from the parents of
the subjects to participate.

Consent for publication
Not applicable.

Copyright
© The Author(s) 2025.

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