Oral Microbiome Foundation Model to Predict Alzheimer’s Disease
Official title: Development of an Oral Microbiome Foundation Model for Systemic Diseases Assessment
Funded at Tufts University Boston · NIH-11438405 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A physician-scientist team will build a large, chatty AI model based on oral microbiome data to help predict Alzheimer’s disease in people, using information from saliva and related samples.
Quick facts
| Grant type | Career grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Tufts University Boston NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | September 15, 2026 |
| Project end | September 14, 2031 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $125,656 |
| NIH project number | 1K08DE036336-01 |
| Project ID | NIH-11438405 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Individuals at risk for or diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, or those undergoing memory health evaluation, whose oral microbiome samples could be analyzed.
✕Less likely to help
People without access to oral microbiome sampling or whose disease etiology does not align with microbiome-based markers.
What this research studies
This project will create a foundation model trained on oral microbiome data to uncover subtle microbial patterns linked to systemic diseases, with an initial focus on predicting Alzheimer's disease. Scientists will train a Transformer-based model, validate it against existing models, and then fine-tune it on AD-labeled datasets to develop a diagnostic predictor. The goal is to enable accurate, scalable predictions of AD risk or presence from oral microbiome profiles, which could complement existing diagnostic approaches. The work involves data processing, model development, and rigorous benchmarking to ensure reliability and potential clinical usefulness.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could benefit from a non-invasive biomarker-based tool to aid early AD detection and monitoring.
How similar studies have gone: Foundational microbiome models are advancing in other domains, but applying a large-scale oral microbiome foundation model specifically to AD is novel and exploratory.
Where this research is happening
-
Tufts University Boston
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Zhu, Zoe — Tufts University Boston
- Study coordinator: Zhu, Zoe
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.