Taiwan Launches First All-Age Gut Microbiome Database, AI Predicts Health Age

Chang Gung Memorial Hospital has announced a significant breakthrough in personalized medicine with the completion of Taiwan's first comprehensive gut microbiome database. This extensive collection spans all age groups, from newborns to individuals aged 93, and includes data from 1,005 Taiwanese participants. The project establishes a detailed "microbiome ecosystem map" specific to the local population, addressing a gap in previous research which largely focused on Western populations.

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Establishing a local gut microbiome database spanning the entire lifespan will help develop disease risk assessments, healthy aging, and precision medicine applications that better meet the needs of the Taiwanese people.

Researchers analyzed the gut microbiome data across ten age-based cohorts, revealing how bacterial composition evolves throughout life. The study found that the infant stage is critical for establishing the microbiome, with beneficial bacteria like Bifidobacterium dominating. As individuals age, more mature bacterial groups such as Faecalibacterium, Bacteroides, and Blautia become more prevalent, reflecting a unique Taiwanese gut micro-ecosystem development.

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The human gut microbiota changes continuously with age, with infancy being the most critical stage for microbiome establishment.

Leveraging artificial intelligence, the team developed a predictive model for "gut microbiome age." This AI tool analyzes bacterial proportions, structure, and maturity to estimate an individual's gut health age, with the XGBoost model showing the best performance, achieving an average absolute error of 11.56 years. While the model currently serves as a research tool, it holds promise for future applications in health management, lifestyle adjustments, and long-term health tracking, pending further validation and clinical integration.

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Adult gut microbiota do contain age signals recognizable by AI, suggesting that gut microbes may reflect aspects of physiological aging and lifestyle characteristics.

The hospital also highlighted its ongoing work in fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), with over 430 cases treated. FMT has shown a 91% success rate for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and is being explored for conditions like autism, ulcerative colitis, and graft-versus-host disease. The establishment of this localized database is expected to drive the development of more tailored disease risk assessments and precision medicine applications for the Taiwanese population.

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Past gut microbiome research has primarily focused on European and American populations, but differences in diet and lifestyle mean these findings may not be applicable to Taiwan.