Precision nutrition for healthy ageing

The challenge

Increasing life expectancy poses one of the major challenges facing society: not only living longer, but enjoying a better quality of life as we age.

Ageing is associated with metabolic, physiological and functional changes that increase the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and frailty. However, these processes do not affect everyone in the same way.

Understanding how diet, metabolism, lifestyle and other biological factors interact is essential for developing preventive strategies that support healthy, personalised ageing.

The solution

To address this challenge, AZTI is involved in several research initiatives focused on applying omics technologies and data science to the study of ageing, including ITTHAKA, BG23 and the OPTIPROT network.

These projects integrate information from multiple sources:

• Clinical and health data
• Nutritional information and lifestyle habits
• Biomarkers obtained through omics technologies
• Metabolic and molecular data associated with ageing

Combining these tools makes it possible to characterise age-related biological processes more accurately and move towards nutritional recommendations tailored to the needs of each individual.

The results

The research carried out has made it possible to:

• Advance the identification of biomarkers associated with healthy ageing.
• Integrate biological, nutritional and clinical data into advanced analytical models.
• Improve understanding of the factors that influence metabolic health during ageing.
• Generate scientific evidence to support the development of future personalised nutrition strategies.
• Strengthen collaboration between research centres, healthcare professionals and organisations working in the health sector.