From Population Science To Personalised Nutrition: Microbial Metabolites As The Functional Link Between Diet, The Gut Microbiome And Health
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Cristina Menni, from King's College London, UK, and the University of Milan, Italy, will join 13th Worls Congress on Targeting Microbiota - ISM 2026 as a speaker.
The gut microbiome is increasingly recognised as a key determinant of human health, yet translating microbiome discoveries into effective personalised nutritional strategies remains a major challenge. While most research has focused on describing microbial composition, it is increasingly clear that microbial metabolites provide the functional link between diet, the gut microbiome and host physiology. These small molecules integrate dietary exposures with microbial and host metabolism, offering valuable insights into biological mechanisms underpinning health and disease.
This presentation will highlight how large-scale population studies combining dietary assessment with metagenomics and metabolomics are advancing our understanding of host–microbiome interactions. Drawing on findings from the TwinsUK cohort and other population studies, I will discuss how microbial metabolites reflect habitual diet, capture gut microbial activity, and provide mechanistic insight into cardiometabolic health. Examples will include faecal metabolite signatures of dietary patterns and prediabetes, the role of microbial metabolites such as secondary bile acids in metabolic health, and emerging evidence that urinary metabolites can serve as non-invasive indicators of gut microbiome diversity and composition.
Together, these findings demonstrate that microbial metabolites move the field beyond descriptive microbiome profiling towards functional biomarkers with potential clinical utility. By identifying modifiable pathways linking diet, microbial function and disease risk, metabolomics offers new opportunities to improve disease prediction, monitor response to dietary interventions, and develop more precise nutritional recommendations. Ultimately, integrating microbiome, metabolomic and nutritional data has the potential to bridge population science and personalised health, bringing precision nutrition closer to routine clinical practice.
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