In this interview Francesco Asnicar, from University of Trento (Italy) explores the role of the human gastrointestinal microbiome in cardiometabolic health and diet, with a particular focus on identifying individual microbial species associated with metabolic and dietary markers. By analysing more than 35,000 gut microbiome samples from healthy individuals across the UK and the US, the researchers were able to rank microbial species according to their consistently favourable or unfavourable associations with a broad panel of health-related markers.

These microbial rankings were then validated in independent publicly available cohorts, including healthy populations, case-control studies across different diseases, and longitudinal dietary intervention studies involving either personalised nutrition or probiotic supplementation. The research is now being expanded to more than 200,000 individuals, integrating dietary data, host characteristics and gut microbiome profiles. 

A specific focus is diabetes, where the findings suggest a strong association between microbiome composition and disease status, even after accounting for potential confounders such as medication, sex, age and BMI. Overall, the interview highlights how large-scale microbiome datasets can help clarify the links between nutrition, cardiometabolic health and disease, while informing the design of future longitudinal and interventional studies.