Description:This project tested the hypothesis that changes in the foregut microbiome are associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA), an end result of a sequence of gastroesophageal reflux diseases (GERD), preceded by reflux esophagitis (RE) and Barrett's esophagus (BE). It involved a case-control study to demonstrate the microbiome-disease association in every stage of GERD sequence as well as analysis of the trend in changes in the microbiome along disease progression toward EA. Detailed analyses which included pathway-disease and gene-disease associations were conducted. Archaea, fungi and viruses were also correlated with the diseases based on their identification.