Media release

From: The University of New South Wales

Did you know your poo is a microbial and biochemical gold mine? Researchers can tell a lot about diseases and current health state from what they find in your poo. But up until now, this obsession with disease has left a massive gap in our knowledge about what constitutes the normal “home state” for our gut microbes.

The Healthy Optimal Australian Microbiome (HOAM) Study at UNSW Sydney aims to fill that gap through defining what the ultimate healthy microbiome looks like.

The microbiome is the DNA of all the microbial communities that live in and on us. Each person harbours a range of different communities of microbes and just like every person is different, the types and proportions of those microbial communities also vary considerably from person to person.

To paint a picture of what the microbiome looks like, The HOAM study uses a host of state-of-the-art technologies to identify the microbiome and its associated metabolic processes. The research team at the Microbiome Research Centre (MRC) at UNSW Medicine & Health hope that by defining what the normal, healthy microbiome looks like, they can then tell when something is off.  If they know what normal is and what isn’t “normal”, they can design interventions to restore normality to the microbiota with a view to improving health and limit the effects of aging.

“Getting to extremely old age while still being cognitively well is a tremendous achievement,” said Prof. Emad El-Omar, the principal investigator of the study. “We are hoping that there is something in the microbiome of healthy centenarians that can tell us how to age well!  By studying what the microbiome looks like in healthy and cognitively robust older adults we can determine the factors that have helped them to age so well.”

But it’s not just centenarians the researchers are hoping to recruit to this study.  HOAM is a multi-generational study looking at the microbiome across the lifespan from 13 years of age to 95 years and older.  Initially the study team are hoping to hear from cognitively well and healthy older-aged adults 65+, and healthy athletes aged 18+ who exercise more than three hours per week.

“Healthy and supremely fit athletes also offer a unique insight. Not only are they physically fit, but they must be at the top of their game emotionally and mentally too. We want to see what in their microbiome might help them achieve peak physical, metabolic, cardiovascular and mental performance. We are trying to define the microbiome of optimally healthy individuals across the age spectrum,” explained Prof. Emad El-Omar.

The study is currently recruiting across NSW with remote options for taking part for participants who live outside major metropolitan areas.

Learn more about the study by visiting the HOAM study website at www.microbiome.org.au/HOAM