Alexandre Boulay's project involves the analysis of phages and bacteria in the gut microbiota from a metagenomic dataset from the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF) at Université Laval, relying on bioinformatics and artificial intelligence (AI) methods. The dataset comes from a recent study that examined the interaction of the endocannabinoid axis with host environmental factors as well as gut, metabolic and mental health status in Quebec adults with various metabolic and lifestyle statuses. The overall objective is to train interpretable AI algorithms to identify phage and bacterial biomarkers of metabolic and mental health in individuals, and to study the interactions between bacteria and phage. This project could have important implications for the understanding of the interactions between bacteria and phages, which are very poorly known, but also for the knowledge of the gut microbiota of the Quebec population in relation to their metabolic and mental health.