ISTOCK, SUSANNEBGaining and losing weight causes extensive changes in the gut microbiota and in biomarkers related to inflammation and heart disease, researchers report today (January 17) in Cell Systems. The authors tracked what they call “personal omics profiles,” composed of the genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics, of people who ate an average of 880 extra calories every day for a month.
“It’s a landmark paper,” says Leroy Hood, chief strategic officer at the Institute for Systems Biology, a Seattle biomedical nonprofit organization, and senior vice president and chief science officer at Providence St. Joseph Health. He was not involved in this study, but he has previously led long-term omics-based projects to track wellness in people. Using this type of data “to study aspects of disease is going to be a transformational approach in medicine, and this is one of the first beautiful, clear demonstrations of how powerful that will be,” he says.
In the study, the researchers monitored subjects’ omics profiles as they added extra snacks and beverages to their regular diets. “We were fortunate we got 23 people who would eat extra calories—typically 1,000 if ...
