Contributors
IMA, PJS & KFC conceived the idea; IMA, KFC, PJS & RD obtained the funding for U-BIOPRED project; SB, JR, PH obtained the funding for the metagenomic analysis; SB, JR, PH, IMA, SHC, AV & KFC discussed the approach to data analysis; .AV, FXI, MIA, NZK analysed the data; AV, FXI & KFC wrote the manuscript; all authors contributed to its finalisation and agreed with the final version for submission.
All authors gave final approval of the manuscript, had full access to all the data in the study, and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
Declaration of interests
Dr Chotirmall has received lecture fees from Astra-Zeneca, serves on advisory boards for Boehringer-Ingelheim, CSL Behring and Pneumagen Ltd. and is on Data and Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMB) for Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University all outside of the submitted work. Dr Maitland-van der Zee has received grants from Health Holland and she is the PI of a P4O2 (Precision Medicine for more Oxygen) public private partnership sponsored by Health Holland involving many private partners that contribute in cash and/or in kind (Boehringer Ingelheim, Breathomix, Fluidda, Ortec Logiqcare, Philips, Quantib-U, Smartfish, SODAQ, Thirona, TopMD and Novartis), received unrestricted research grants from GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim and Vertex, received consulting fees paid to her institution from Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca, and received honoraria for lectures paid to her institution from GlaxoSmithKline; outside the submitted work. Dr. Dahlén reports personal fees from AZ, Cayman Chemicals, GSK, Novartis, Regeneron, Sanofi, TEVA, outside the submitted work. Dr Baribaud owns stock options from his former and current employer. Dr Sterk is scientific advisor and has an officially non-substantial share in the SME Breathomix that produces eNoses. Dr Chung has received honoraria for participating in Advisory Board meetings of Roche, Merck, Shionogi and Rickett-Beckinson and has also been renumerated for speaking engagements for Novartis and AZ. Dr Riley worked for and had shares in GSK. Dr. Bates reports to be an employee of Johnson & Johnson and to have previously worked and holds stock in GSK. Dr Djukanovic declares consulting fees from Synairgen, Sanofi and Galapagos, lecture fees from GSK, AZ and Airways Vista and he holds shares from Synairgen. Dr Howarth is an employee of GSK. Dr Montuschi, Dr Kermani, Dr Adcock, Dr Ivan, Dr Abdel-Aziz and Mr Versi have nothing to declare.