# "Defining the Human Metabotype" [Human metabolic status defined through genetic, diet,environmental exposure and exercise perturbations]

> **NIH NIH U24** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2024 · $933,739

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity (MoTrPAC), Nutrition for Precision Health (NPH), and the Human
Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR) are NIH-funded national projects (three originating from NIH
Common Fund initiatives) that measure thousands of metabolites in large cohorts of human subjects under
exercise, diet, environmental exposure conditions respectively. The Common Fund initiated Metabolomics
Workbench, which serves as the data repository, the metabolomics harmonization center and the data analytics
workbench for deep analyses of human metabolomics and provides the infrastructure to develop the concept of
human metabotype. We characterize the metabolomic state of groups of individuals with common homeostatic
points for a collection of metabolites as “human metabotypes”. More precisely, the metabotype defines a
collection of metabolites or metabolite classes that is unique (in the metabolomic hyperspace) to a class of
individuals – defined in this project through metabolomics measurements from humans subject to exercise and
diet perturbations and humans subject to distinct environmental exposures. Human subjects can be classified
as belonging to one of several distinct groups (e.g., clusters in a UMAP) defining the metabotype for a chosen
set of metabolites in a class. At the quantitative level, the distinct groups are defined by distinct profiles of
metabolites or metabolite classes.
The major goal of this project is to use the three national projects to develop the “metabotype” concept into a
concrete set of points in the metabolomics hyperspace that define the human physiological state. Towards this,
we harmonize the metabolomics data across the national projects, identify the clusters of metabolites/metabolite
classes that define a group of human subjects, and provide the biological context to the metabotype. The tools
we will develop will enable an end user to analyze and decipher the physiological function that further defines
the metabotype and explore perturbations such as exercise, diet, or changing environment to see how the
homeostatic endotype points change into another possible homeostatic state.
Most importantly, given that the definition of the endotypes in the MoTrPAC, NPH and HHEAR projects largely
refer to healthy human subjects, we will develop the ability for any individual with their metabolomic
measurements to map their data on the metabotype space. Using such a “Metabotype Calculator”, the most
valuable product of this project, a human subject will be able to assess their “state of health” and assess how
perturbations such as exercise or diet will alter their homeostatic metabotype states. We anticipate that the
“Metabotype Calculator” will serve as a dynamic living counterpart to the genotype in defining the human
subject’s state of physiology. All the resources developed in this project will be available on the Common Fund
Data Ecosystem Data Repository Center (CFDE DRC). The Pr...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10994353
- **Project number:** 1U24OD038425-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Shankar Subramaniam
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $933,739
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-17 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10994353

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10994353, "Defining the Human Metabotype" [Human metabolic status defined through genetic, diet,environmental exposure and exercise perturbations] (1U24OD038425-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-31 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10994353. Licensed CC0.

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