Australian National Phenome Centre

Changing lives and solving problems of global significance

The work of the ANPC supports almost every area of bioscience. It reaches across traditional research silos and fosters a new, more collaborative approach to science that is critical to solving some of the world’s most challenging problems.

As the international centre of expertise in metabolic phenotyping, the ANPC provides an important new platform for research across the full spectrum of health, food and the environment.

Revolutionary research that will transform the health and lives of billions

By analysing the molecular, physical and biochemical characteristics of biological tissue and fluids such as blood and urine, researchers at the ANPC aim to predict the complex genetic, environmental and lifestyle interactions causing disease.

Core research areas

Precision medicine

Phenomics will enable doctors to deliver precision medicine by predicting the likelihood of disease or characterising its progression, ensuring patients receive treatments tailored to their need.

By studying the phenotypes of different populations, researchers will learn more about the causes and best treatments for a range of complex diseases such as diabetes, autism, antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics, and cancer.

Indigenous health

Phenomics studies will help researchers better understand genetic, dietary, environmental and lifestyle factors that contribute to poorer health outcomes in Aboriginal communities.

This research will help develop and assess the effectiveness of interventions to address these factors and strengthen the health of the population.

Precision nutrition and food

Our analysis of population samples will reveal how human health is affected by the nutritional quality and density of food, which will lead the development of nutritional and clinical stratification frameworks through the study of gut microbiome-host-diet interactions.

We are collaborating with researchers around the world to better understand individual responses to diet by coupling data from highly-controlled dietary studies with deep metabolic phenotyping, with the aim of personalizing healthy eating advice.

Key researchers

Professor Jeremy Nicholson

Centre Director

Professor Elaine Holmes

Deputy Director

View all researchers

A guide to phenomes and phenomics

Phenome

A person's phenome is a dynamic fingerprint of their unique biology resulting from the complex interactions between environmental and genetic factors.