uOttawa developing AI-powered tool to personalize diets for people living with IBD

Over 300,000 Canadians live with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. These conditions are complex and difficult to manage. While diet plays an important role in disease outcomes, each person's gut microbiome, composed of trillions of microorganisms that influence digestion and inflammation, is highly individualized. This uniqueness means that one-size-fits-all dietary approaches often fail to produce consistent results and can make nutritional management of IBD unpredictable.

Now, researchers at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) will play a central role in the development of a promising AI tool aimed at supporting personalized dietary strategies for people living with IBD, thanks to a $10 million in funding from the Weston Family Foundation over the next three years.

"Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all dietary recommendations, we are working toward personalized microbiome-informed approaches that will match specific types of carbohydrates to individual patients," explains Dr. Alain Stintzi, Full Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at uOttawa, who is receiving funding alongside project co-chair Dr. Heather Armstrong from the University of Alberta.

Central to this effort is RapidAIM, a high-throughput platform developed by uOttawa researchers that measures how an individual's gut microbiome responds to a wide range of dietary carbohydrates. By integrating RapidAIM data with the expertise of research teams from uOttawa, the University of Alberta, and partner clinical centers across Canada, the project will establish the foundation to train an artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of generating personalized dietary guidance. This collaboration aims to move beyond generic nutritional advice toward recommendations to each individual, with the goal of supporting better health and quality of life for people living with IBD.

"The goal is to provide Canadians with better tools to support their health," said Dr. Stintzi, who is also Director of uOttawa's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. "We envision this tool as a resource for healthcare providers to integrate microbiome-based dietary guidance into IBD management".

IBD affects approximately 1% of Canadians, one of the highest prevalence rates worldwide. Current treatments can be costly, carry side effects, and do not always prevent disease flare-ups. By offering patients and clinicians microbiome-based insights into dietary carbohydrate responses, this research could open the door to nutritional strategies that complement existing therapies and ultimately improve quality of life for Canadians living with IBD.

"This level of investment reflects our belief that bold ideas, supported by rigorous science and the opportunity to make real-world change, can alter the trajectory of health care and improve lives for Canadians," said Weston Family Foundation Chair Garfield Mitchell. "These projects are tackling pressing challenges that impact Canadians, and we are proud to support homegrown research that could lead to entirely new paradigms in treatment, prevention, and care."

Read the Weston Family Foundation press release here.

Provided by University of Ottawa