A unified knowledge graph linking foodomics to chemical-disease networks and flavor profiles

Modern nutrition science still lacks a comprehensive, machine-readable map linking diet to molecular composition and biological effects. Here we present FoodAtlas, a large-scale knowledge graph that links 1430 foods to 3610 chemicals, 2181 diseases, and 958 flavor descriptors through 96,981 provenance-tracked edges. A transformer-based text-mining pipeline extracted 48,474 quantitative food-chemical associations from 125,723 literature sentences (F<sub>1</sub> = 0.67) and integrated them with 23,211 chemical-disease assertions from the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, 15,222 chemical-bioactivity records from ChEMBL, 3645 flavor annotations from FlavorDB and PubChem, and 6429 taxonomic relationships. Graph embeddings revealed six dietary modules whose signature metabolites delineate distinct, multisystem disease-risk trajectories. Models built on FoodAtlas demonstrate practical utility: a bioactivity predictor achieved strong correlation with antioxidant assays (R² = 0.52; ρ = 0.72), and a substitution engine reduced simulated total disease risk by 11.9%.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
npj Science of Food
Published
2026-01-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-025-00680-9
Primary Topic
Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

A unified knowledge graph linking foodomics to chemical-disease networks and flavor profiles

Jason Youn, Ilias Tagkopoulos, Fangzhou Li, Kaichi Xie et al.
npj Science of Food
Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
article

A unified knowledge graph linking foodomics to chemical-disease networks and flavor profiles

Jason Youn, Ilias Tagkopoulos, Fangzhou Li, Kaichi Xie, Pranav Gupta, Arielle Yoo, Trevor Chan, Keer Ni, Michael Gunning
article en

Abstract

Modern nutrition science still lacks a comprehensive, machine-readable map linking diet to molecular composition and biological effects. Here we present FoodAtlas, a large-scale knowledge graph that links 1430 foods to 3610 chemicals, 2181 diseases, and 958 flavor descriptors through 96,981 provenance-tracked edges. A transformer-based text-mining pipeline extracted 48,474 quantitative food-chemical associations from 125,723 literature sentences (F<sub>1</sub> = 0.67) and integrated them with 23,211 chemical-disease assertions from the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, 15,222 chemical-bioactivity records from ChEMBL, 3645 flavor annotations from FlavorDB and PubChem, and 6429 taxonomic relationships. Graph embeddings revealed six dietary modules whose signature metabolites delineate distinct, multisystem disease-risk trajectories. Models built on FoodAtlas demonstrate practical utility: a bioactivity predictor achieved strong correlation with antioxidant assays (R² = 0.52; ρ = 0.72), and a substitution engine reduced simulated total disease risk by 11.9%.

npj Science of FoodVol. 10(1)
AO Foundation (CH), Next Generation Technology (United States) (US), University of California, Davis (US)
U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 83%
Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.