A 23-year-old Albanian woman from Shkupi, Hana Selmani, is making global headlines with a groundbreaking innovation in artificial intelligence. She has developed a tool that uses gut microbiome data to detect signs of depression—achieving an incredible 99% accuracy.

Selmani completed her studies in New York and at New York University Abu Dhabi. Under the mentorship of Professor Mai Oudah, her research focused on whether AI can detect depression and if there’s a link between gut microbes and mental health. The result? A predictive model that could revolutionize how depression is identified.

“This project aims to create an effective, accessible, and low-cost tool for people who can’t afford traditional psychiatric diagnoses” Hana said in an interview.

Her AI tool analyzes gut microbiome samples using machine learning. It was trained with data from 90 individuals, distinguishing between microbial profiles with and without depression. The model focuses on identifying 30–50 key microbes most associated with mental health, a breakthrough that not only helps detect depression but could lead to new biological studies.

The project has already yielded promising results, and her scientific paper—“Using Machine Learning for Depression Detection Based on Gut Microbiome”—has been published in Springer Nature. Although the tool is not yet ready for clinical diagnosis, it marks a major step toward more accessible mental health screening.

Hana’s success is even more impressive given her age and recent graduation, making her one of the few young scientists to publish research of this impact.