Deciphering female’s SEx hormones - MIcrobiota interactions during a menstrual CYCLE for an efficient personalized medicine in cardiometabolic disorders

Introduction

Cardiometabolic disorders (CMD), a group of conditions that include cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, are characterised by dysfunction of glycaemic and/or lipid metabolism. Clinical manifestations, severity, and progression are different between sexes, the underlying mechanisms of which are largely unknown.

Need for Tailored Strategies

The poorer prognosis in women globally calls for an urgent need for better women's tailored prevention and treatment strategies. Still, for an efficient personalised strategy, female-specific mechanisms have to be identified.

Project Overview

The SEMICYCLE project will systematically investigate female sex hormones-microbiota interactions to unravel female-specific microbiota features regulating glycaemic and lipid metabolism in women during homeostasis and diseases.

Research Objectives

Findings of this research project will pinpoint key mechanisms useful to improve current prevention and diagnostic tools as well as therapeutic options for CMD. SEMICYCLE will follow up 300 healthy women during one menstrual cycle, and longitudinal cross-omics data will be generated, analysed, and integrated with:

1. Female sex hormones variations
2. Lifestyle and diet
3. Glycaemic and lipid phenotypes

This will be achieved using state-of-the-art methodologies and computational approaches.

Investigating Mechanisms

Subsequently, mechanisms identified during homeostasis will be investigated for association with CMD onset and progression, using already existing cohorts totalling more than 10,000 samples.

Expertise and Expected Outcomes

This research is based on my expertise and that of my research group in generating and analysing omics data in large data sets. Findings will reveal previously unknown microbiota regulators of CMD in women, thus offering alternative routes for prevention, diagnosis, and treatments in women—a necessary step for efficient personalised medicine.