We are excited to share our latest publication in Communications Medicine (https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-026-01565-y), the result of an engaged collaboration with sports medicine physicians Justin Carrard and Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss:
As lipidomics continue to advance, the search for biomarkers with greater predictive power is transforming the landscape of precision medicine. However, before metabolites can be used confidently to assess disease risk or guide clinical decisions, an essential question must first be addressed: what does “normal” look like in healthy individuals?
This question inspired our latest study, which explores how serum sphingolipids vary across the adult lifespan. Sphingolipids, and particularly ceramides, have emerged as promising biomarkers of cardiometabolic health and are increasingly being integrated into clinical risk assessment tools. Yet their interpretation requires a clear understanding of how their concentrations are influenced by factors such as age, sex, hormonal status, diet, and physical activity.
Using serum samples from the COmPLETE-Health study (https://www.complete-project.ch/english/studies/complete-health/), established by Prof. Arno Schmidt-Trucksäss and colleagues at the University of Basel, we characterized sphingolipid profiles in more than 500 clinically healthy adults ranging from 20 to 91 years of age. Our findings provide valuable reference data and contribute to a more nuanced interpretation of sphingolipid biomarkers in both research and clinical settings. We would like to sincerely thank all study participants and collaborators who made this work possible. Special congratulations go to Justin Carrard, Head of the Sport & Youth Health Unit at CHUV (https://www.chuv.ch/fr/sport-jeunes/lunite-en-bref/notre-equipe/dr-justin-carrard), who led this project with remarkable dedication and enthusiasm. We also warmly thank Hector Gallart-Ayala and Tony Teav from our Metabolomics & Lipidomics team for their outstanding analytical expertise and contributions to this wor