A Powerful New Tool for Biomedical Research

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar (WCM-Q) have built a comprehensive molecular map of the human body and its complicated physiological processes by analyzing thousands of molecules found in 391 volunteers' blood, urine, and saliva samples.

The data was combined to produce Connecting Omics (COmics), a sophisticated, interactive visual web-based tool that can be used to examine people's complicated molecular make-up and uncover underlying features linked to various disorders.

The human body's molecular processes are the chemical reactions and interactions that occur within and between cells, including critical functions such as DNA replication, protein synthesis, energy production, cellular communication, and various metabolic pathways, all of which are governed by complex protein-protein, protein-DNA, and protein-RNA interactions, ultimately enabling the body's vital functions.

The comprehensive study, published on August 19th, 2024 in Nature Communications, compiled 12 years of data from the Qatar Metabolomics Study of Diabetes (QMDiab), a diabetes case-control study in Qatar's multiethnic population, which is largely Arab, Filipino, and Indian.

Our idea was to bring together everything we have learned over more than a decade of multiomics research to create a comprehensive molecular model of the human body and its processes. This reference tool is free to access and use by researchers who want to investigate how the human body works at the molecular level and also for the formation of hypotheses to test with experimentation.”

Dr. Karsten Suhre, Study Senior Author and Professor, Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine

In conjunction with Hamad Medical Corporation, the researchers collected numerous aliquots of blood, urine, and saliva samples from subjects with and without diabetes. The samples were then analyzed using 18 distinct high-throughput analytical tools, yielding an incredibly rich dataset of 6,300 unique molecular data points, including genomic data (DNA), transcriptome (RNA), proteins, and metabolites including amino acids, sugars, and fats.

In addition, they determined genetic variations, DNA methylation locations, and gene expression for each individual.

This enabled the researchers to identify connections and pathways that connect genetic traits to particular proteins, metabolic processes, and illnesses. They then meticulously incorporated the massive amounts of data from all of the individuals into an online web-based program that served as an interface to 'The Molecular Human,' the molecular description of the human body.

The strategy of merging genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic, and other types of so-called '-omics' research is known as 'multiomics.' This technique has developed in recent years as a crucial tool for biomedical researchers looking to understand how the human body and diseases work, perhaps leading to the creation of novel drug treatments.

For example, the study discovered and defined the proteins and metabolites that are hallmarks of distinct subtypes of type 2 diabetes, offering information on how the disease expresses itself.

Our integrative omics approach provides an overview of the interrelationships between different molecular traits and their association with a person's phenotype and their observable traits, such as their physical appearance, biochemical processes, and behaviors. The scale of the data integrated within the COmics web tool enables access to hundreds of thousands of pathways and associations for researchers to explore, giving huge potential for discovery and investigation.”

Dr. Anna Halama, Study First Author and Assistant Professor, Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine