The geometry of clinical labs and wellness states from deeply phenotyped humans

Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 11;12(1):3578. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23849-8.

Abstract

Longitudinal multi-omics measurements are highly valuable in studying heterogeneity in health and disease phenotypes. For thousands of people, we have collected longitudinal multi-omics data. To analyze, interpret and visualize this extremely high-dimensional data, we use the Pareto Task Inference (ParTI) method. We find that the clinical labs data fall within a tetrahedron. We then use all other data types to characterize the four archetypes. We find that the tetrahedron comprises three wellness states, defining a wellness triangular plane, and one aberrant health state that captures aspects of commonality in movement away from wellness. We reveal the tradeoffs that shape the data and their hierarchy, and use longitudinal data to observe individual trajectories. We then demonstrate how the movement on the tetrahedron can be used for detecting unexpected trajectories, which might indicate transitions from health to disease and reveal abnormal conditions, even when all individual blood measurements are in the norm.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Disease
  • Female
  • Health
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Metabolomics
  • Microbiota
  • Multifactorial Inheritance
  • Phenotype*
  • Proteomics
  • Systems Analysis
  • Systems Biology*