Multi-omics microsampling for the profiling of lifestyle-associated changes in health, 2023, Xiaotao Shen et al

nature biomedical engineering

Multi-omics microsampling for the profiling of lifestyle-associated changes in health

Xiaotao Shen, Ryan Kellogg, Daniel J. Panyard, Nasim Bararpour, Kevin Erazo Castillo, Brittany Lee-McMullen, Alireza Delfarah, Jessalyn Ubellacker, Sara Ahadi, Yael Rosenberg-Hasson, Ariel Ganz, Kévin Contrepois, Basil Michael, Ian Simms, Chuchu Wang, Daniel Hornburg & Michael P. Snyder

Abstract

Current healthcare practices are reactive and use limited physiological and clinical information, often collected months or years apart. Moreover, the discovery and profiling of blood biomarkers in clinical and research settings are constrained by geographical barriers, the cost and inconvenience of in-clinic venepuncture, low sampling frequency and the low depth of molecular measurements.

Here we describe a strategy for the frequent capture and analysis of thousands of metabolites, lipids, cytokines and proteins in 10 μl of blood alongside physiological information from wearable sensors.

We show the advantages of such frequent and dense multi-omics microsampling in two applications: the assessment of the reactions to a complex mixture of dietary interventions, to discover individualized inflammatory and metabolic responses; and deep individualized profiling, to reveal large-scale molecular fluctuations as well as thousands of molecular relationships associated with intra-day physiological variations (in heart rate, for example) and with the levels of clinical biomarkers (specifically, glucose and cortisol) and of physical activity.

Combining wearables and multi-omics microsampling for frequent and scalable omics may facilitate dynamic health profiling and biomarker discovery.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-022-00999-8

 

USA Today

Article: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...icrosample-blood-health-insights/11076042002/

A geneticist studied one drop of his blood – and saw things he couldn't from a vial of blood
Karen Weintraub | USA TODAY

You could say Michael Snyder is obsessed with learning about the inner workings of his own body. The Stanford University geneticist once tracked himself as he developed diabetes.

Now, in a new paper, he took repeated blood samples every day for a week – 14 a day, 98 times in total. He used a new method he and his team developed, using a drop collected from a finger prick rather than vial after vial taken from the crook of his arm.

The study, published Thursday morning, showed Snyder and his colleagues were able to get nearly the same results as a typical blood draw from a sample 1,000-times smaller.

In addition to learning more about his own biology, Snyder thinks it offers a new way of tracking health measures and eventually might replace getting blood drawn at the local doctor's office. Such microsampling, he said, is convenient, can be done more frequently than an annual or semi-annual blood draw, and doesn't require visiting a clinic with sick people.

"I think it's going to take over the way we do health monitoring," Snyder said.

 

Shades of Theranos there . . .

 

They're trying to get ahead of game - from further down the article:

"Snyder compared the technology to the thoroughly discredited approach by the company Theranos, whose former CEO and president are now behind bars.

"It's Theranos that works," Snyder said of his own technology.

Theranos also used a drop of blood, but in Snyder's approach, blood is shipped to a conventional lab that sorts molecules based on their mass and electronic charge, while Theranos promised a new analytical process that never worked.

Other companies are currently developing blood tests based on a single drop, but Snyder envisions his being conducted more regularly at home, rather than during an occasional doctor's visit."

 

Sampling many times a day may be the best way of getting a handle on ME.

 

They have been recruiting for this study.

Stanford University researchers are recruiting ME/CFS, Chronic Lyme, and Long COVID patients for a study to better understand symptom flares such as post-exertional malaise (PEM), or “crashes”.
https://snyderlabs.stanford.edu/crashcourse/