RESEARCH ARTICLE MetaboAge DB: a repository of known ageing-related changes in the human metabolome Teodora Bucaciuc Mracica . Anca Anghel . Catalin Florentin Ion . Corina Violeta Moraru . Robi Tacutu . Gligor Andrei Lazar Received: 30 April 2020 / Accepted: 30 July 2020 / Published online: 12 August 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020 Abstract Accumulating metabolomics data is start- ing to become extremely useful in understanding the ageing process, by providing a snapshot into the metabolic state of tissues and organs, at different ages. Molecular studies of such metabolic variations during ‘‘normal’’ ageing can hence guide lifestyle changes and/or medical interventions aimed at improving healthspan and perhaps even lifespan. In this work, we present MetaboAge, a freely accessible database which hosts ageing-related metabolite changes, occur- ring in healthy individuals. Data is automatically filtered and then manually curated from scientific articles reporting statistically significant associations of human metabolite variations or correlations with ageing. Up to date, MetaboAge contains 408 metabo- lites annotated with their biological and chemical information, and more than 1515 ageing-related variations, graphically represented on the website grouped by validation methods, sex and age-groups. The MetaboAge database aims to continually structure the expanding information from the field of metabo- lomics in relation to ageing, thus making it more accessible for further research in gerontology. Keywords Metabolomics Á Ageing Á Database Á Metabolite variation Introduction Due to medical improvements, the average lifespan within the human population has significantly increased in the last few centuries, revealing new major biomedical challenges which include tackling the incidence of a wide-range of chronic conditions with debilitating effects for the elderly population. Although the manifestations of these age-related pathologies are different, one important common denominator is an exponential increase in prevalence with age (Belikov 2019). Moreover, extensive molec- ular links have also been shown between ageing and age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes Robi Tacutu and Gligor Andrei Lazar contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-020-09892-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to autho- rized users. T. Bucaciuc Mracica Á C. F. Ion Á R. Tacutu (&) Systems Biology of Aging Group, Institute of Biochemistry, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: robi.tacutu@gmail.com A. Anghel Á C. V. Moraru Á G. A. Lazar (&) Reverse Senescence Biotechnologies SRL, Campia Turzii, Romania R. Tacutu Chronos Biosystems SRL, Bucharest, Romania 123 Biogerontology (2020) 21:763–771 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-020-09892-w