Segal Lab

The Human Phenotype Project (HPP) is a large-scale deep-phenotype prospective cohort. To date, approximately 28,000 participants have enrolled, with more than 13,000 completing their initial visit. The project is aimed at identifying novel molecular signatures with diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic value, and at developing artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictive models for disease onset and progression. The HPP includes longitudinal profiling encompassing medical history, lifestyle and nutrition, anthropometrics, blood tests, continuous glucose and sleep monitoring, imaging and multi-omics data, including genetics, transcriptomics, microbiome (gut, vaginal and oral), metabolomics and immune profiling. Analysis of these data highlights the variation of phenotypes with age and ethnicity and unravels molecular signatures of disease by comparison with matched healthy controls. Leveraging extensive dietary and lifestyle data, we identify associations between lifestyle factors and health outcomes. Finally, we present a multi-modal foundation AI model, trained using self-supervised learning on diet and continuous-glucose-monitoring data, that outperforms existing methods in predicting disease onset. This framework can be extended to integrate other modalities and act as a personalized digital twin. In summary, we present a deeply phenotyped cohort that serves as a platform for advancing biomarker discovery, enabling the development of multi-modal AI models and personalized medicine approaches.

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) associate phenotypes and genetic variants across a study cohort. GWASs require large-scale cohorts with both phenotype and genetic sequencing data, limiting studied phenotypes. The Human Phenotype Project is a longitudinal study that has measured a wide range of clinical and biomolecular features from a self-assignment cohort over 5 years. The phenotypes collected are quantitative traits, providing higher-resolution insights into the genetics of complex phenotypes. Methods: We present the results of GWASs and polygenic risk score phenome-wide association studies with 729 clinical phenotypes and 4,043 molecular features from the Human Phenotype Project. This includes clinical traits that have not been previously associated with genetics, including measures from continuous sleep monitoring, continuous glucose monitoring, liver ultrasound, hormonal status, and fundus imaging. Findings: In GWAS of 8,706 individuals, we found significant associations between 169 clinical traits and 1,184 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. We found genes associated with both glycemic control and mental disorders, and we quantify the strength of genetic signals in serum metabolites. In polygenic risk score phenome-wide association studies for clinical traits, we found 16,047 significant associations. Conclusions: The entire set of findings, which we disseminate publicly, provides newfound resolution into the genetic architecture of complex human phenotypes. Funding: E.S. is supported by the Minerva foundation with funding from the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research and by the European Research Council and the Israel Science Foundation.

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have provided numerous associations between human single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and health traits. Likewise, metagenome-wide association studies (MWASs) between bacterial SNPs and human traits can suggest mechanistic links, but very few such studies have been done thus far. In this study, we devised an MWAS framework to detect SNPs and associate them with host phenotypes systematically. We recruited and obtained gut metagenomic samples from a cohort of 7,190 healthy individuals and discovered 1,358 statistically significant associations between a bacterial SNP and host body mass index (BMI), from which we distilled 40 independent associations. Most of these associations were unexplained by diet, medications or physical exercise, and 17 replicated in a geographically independent cohort. We uncovered BMI-associated SNPs in 27 bacterial species, and 12 of them showed no association by standard relative abundance analysis. We revealed a BMI association of an SNP in a potentially inflammatory pathway of Bilophila wadsworthia as well as of a group of SNPs in a region coding for energy metabolism functions in a Faecalibacterium prausnitzii genome. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering nucleotide-level diversity in microbiome studies and pave the way toward improved understanding of interpersonal microbiome differences and their potential health implications.

Complex diseases, such as coronary artery disease (CAD), are often multifactorial, caused by multiple underlying pathological mechanisms. Here, to study the multifactorial nature of CAD, we performed comprehensive clinical and multi-omic profiling, including serum metabolomics and gut microbiome data, for 199 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) recruited from two major Israeli hospitals, and validated these results in a geographically distinct cohort. ACS patients had distinct serum metabolome and gut microbial signatures as compared with control individuals, and were depleted in a previously unknown bacterial species of the Clostridiaceae family. This bacterial species was associated with levels of multiple circulating metabolites in control individuals, several of which have previously been linked to an increased risk of CAD. Metabolic deviations in ACS patients were found to be person specific with respect to their potential genetic or environmental origin, and to correlate with clinical parameters and cardiovascular outcomes. Moreover, metabolic aberrations in ACS patients linked to microbiome and diet were also observed to a lesser extent in control individuals with metabolic impairment, suggesting the involvement of these aberrations in earlier dysmetabolic phases preceding clinically overt CAD. Finally, a metabolomics-based model of body mass index (BMI) trained on the non-ACS cohort predicted higher-than-actual BMI when applied to ACS patients, and the excess BMI predictions independently correlated with both diabetes mellitus (DM) and CAD severity, as defined by the number of vessels involved. These results highlight the utility of the serum metabolome in understanding the basis of risk-factor heterogeneity in CAD.

OBJECTIVE To compare the clinical effects of a personalized postprandial-targeting (PPT) diet versus a Mediterranean (MED) diet on glycemic control and metabolic health in prediabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We randomly assigned adults with prediabetes (n 5 225) to follow a MED diet or a PPT diet for a 6-month dietary intervention and additional 6-month follow-up. The PPT diet relies on a machine learning algorithm that integrates clinical and microbiome features to predict personal postprandial glucose responses. During the intervention, all participants were connected to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and self-reported dietary intake using a smartphone application. RESULTS Among 225 participants randomized (58.7% women, mean ± SD age 50 ± 7 years, BMI 31.3 ± 5.8 kg/m², HbA_1c, 5.9 ± 0.2% [41 ± 2.4 mmol/mol], fasting plasma glucose 114 ± 12 mg/dL [6.33 ± 0.67 mmol/L]), 200 (89%) completed the 6-month intervention. A total of 177 participants also contributed 12-month follow-up data. Both interventions reduced the daily time with glucose levels >140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) and HbA_1c levels, but reductions were significantly greater in PPT compared with MED. The mean 6-month change in \u201ctime above 140\u201d was 0.3 ± 0.8 h/day and 1.3 ± 1.5 h/day for MED and PPT, respectively (95% CI between-group difference 1.29 to 0.66, P < 0.001). The mean 6-month change in HbA_1c was 0.08 ± 0.19% (0.9 ± 2.1 mmol/ mol) and 0.16 ± 0.24% (1.7 ± 2.6 mmol/mol) for MED and PPT, respectively (95% CI between-group difference 0.14 to 0.02, P 5 0.007). The significant between-group differences were maintained at 12-month follow-up. No significant differences were noted between the groups in a CGM-measured oral glucose tolerance test. CONCLUSIONS In this clinical trial in prediabetes, a PPT diet improved glycemic control significantly more than a MED diet as measured by daily time of glucose levels >140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) and HbA_1c. These findings may have implications for dietary advice in clinical practice.