Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42135472›Full record

ArticleNPJ digital medicine2026

A foundational model encodes deep phenotyping data and enables diverse downstream applications.

Qiyang Hong, Cong Wang, Wenqian Wu, Yuyan Li, Xinti Sun, Zigeng Huang, Jixin Wang, Mengyan Zhang, Peixing Wan, Xiaolin Ni and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in NPJ digital medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Qiyang Hong *State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Cong Wang *State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Wenqian WuState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Yuyan LiState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Xinti SunState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Zigeng HuangState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Jixin WangState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Mengyan ZhangState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Peixing WanSchool of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Xiaolin NiState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Erkang YiGuangzhou National Laboratory, Guangzhou International BioIsland, Guangdong, China.
Junling PangState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. pjl_happy@ibms.pumc.edu.cn.
Erping LongState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences & School of Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. erping.long@ibms.pumc.edu.cn.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Deep phenotyping data are essential for understanding disease mechanisms and individual health trajectories. However, its unprecedented scale and complexity pose significant analytical challenges that conventional approaches struggle to address. Here, we introduce ukbFound, a foundation model that encoded thousands of individual-level traits into language-like sequences. By incorporating domain-specific tokenization, position-free embedding, and interpretable reasoning, ukbFound effectively captures latent disease-trait relationships from 502,118 UK Biobank individuals. We demonstrate its versatility in three downstream applications. In disease stratification, ukbFound identifies distinct patient subgroups in 289 diseases, with 53/289 (18.3%) showing FDR-significant prognostic differences. Notably, ukbFound reveals two subgroups in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease distinguished by unique basophil count distributions, suggesting a novel indicator for lung function decline. In multimorbidity network analysis, ukbFound uncovers previously unreported associations (e.g., low platelet disorder and gout) and disease communities with shared etiological mechanisms. In disease prediction, ukbFound identified high-risk individuals based solely on lifestyle and dietary data, outperforming ten benchmark models by ΔAUC gains of +0.03 to +0.16. Notably, the highest-risk group showed 17.5-fold greater odds of developing gout up to 8 years in advance. Collectively, ukbFound provides a scalable and interpretable framework for modeling deep phenotyping data and advancing precision medicine.

Identifiers

PMID42135472
PMCPMC13408667

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.