Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Science, Microbes & Health Podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Progress in understanding the gut microbiome’s role in health and disease states, with Prof. Emad El-Omar MD FRCP | 05 Jun 2025 | 00:22:08 | |
This episode features Prof. Emad El-Omar MD FRCP from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, speaking about a recent paper exploring the healthy microbiome concept, as well as the latest research on how the gut microbiome contributes to the pathophysiology of several diseases. Prof. El-Omar talked about research on H. pylori-induced disease in the stomach; it’s known that these bacteria decrease acid secretion, which shifts the gastric microbiology in a way that drives progression to cancer. Prof. El-Omar recently co-authored a review paper in Gut that addressed the definition of a healthy gut microbiome. Although a definition has not yet been established, progress is being made by studying healthy people such as centenarians around the world. The best approach may be to define a core microbiome signature that’s present across healthy phenotypes. The core is likely defined by the gut microbiome’s function, so diverse compositions may be able to support health. The paper authors emphasize that pursuing knowledge about what makes a healthy microbiome is a worthwhile pursuit, and they outline what research is necessary to make continued progress in this area. Validation and reproducibility are critical for moving toward clinical applications. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Prof. Emad El-Omar MD FRCP: Professor El-Omar graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University, Scotland, and trained as a gastroenterologist. He worked as a Visiting Scholar/Scientist at Vanderbilt University, TN, and National Cancer Institute, MD, USA, and was Professor of Gastroenterology at Aberdeen University, Scotland, for 16 years before taking up the Chair of Medicine at St George & Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is the Editor in Chief of the journal Gut. His research interests include all aspects of the microbiome, inflammation driven GI cancer and IBD. He is the Director of the Microbiome Research Centre at UNSW/St George Hospital, Sydney. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| The HACK index for measuring a health-associated gut microbiome, with Dr. Tarini Ghosh PhD | 30 May 2025 | 00:29:04 | |
This episode features computational microbiologist Dr. Tarini Ghosh PhD from Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (Delhi, India) speaking about his recently published paper that proposes a novel Health-Associated Core Keystone (HACK) index for measuring a healthy microbiome. To create the index, the group used a huge volume of sequence data – over 201 terabytes – from more than 45,000 individuals with and without disease across different geographies. The ultimate aim is to create a universal measure for a health-associated microbiome. The HACK index is based on taxa in the gut microbiome, and consists of 3 components: (1) prevalence and connectedness in the gut microbiome of healthy individuals, (2) longitudinal stability, and (3) association with disease. Keystone taxa were generally more prevalent / abundant in the gut microbiome but not always. The group is now working to connect the identified taxa to specific functions. In the future, this index may be used as a diagnostic tool, possibly to predict a positive response in clinical trials. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Tarini Ghosh PhD: Dr. Tarini Shankar Ghosh leads the Microbiome Informatics group at the Department of Computational Biology at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology – Delhi, India. His research focuses on mining global microbiome datasets using advanced statistical methods, machine learning, and deep learning to develop predictive models and indexes that can facilitate formulation of novel microbiome-derived clinical end-points along with the development of generic and population-specific microbiome-derived diagnostics/therapeutics. His research includes identifying the global and cohort-specific markers of microbiome-resilience and disease, investigating the microbiome taxa associated with response to different therapies and cross-body-site microbiome associations. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Regulatory science and the development of microbiome biomarkers, with Dr. Céline Druart PhD | 22 May 2025 | 00:23:17 | |
This episode features Dr. Céline Druart PhD of Pharmabiotic Research Institute (PRI) speaking about the role of regulatory science in the development of microbiome biomarkers. First, PRI’s Communication and Membership Manager Camille Bello briefly describes the work of the PRI in supporting the development of therapeutic and diagnostic products derived from microbiome science. Regulation is important to protect consumers and reward innovation, and the development of biomarkers that predict response to treatment, for example, can help move toward personalized medicine. Dr. Druart notes many potential microbiome-based biomarkers have emerged but none have been successfully validated to date. Regulation always follows innovation, and regulatory science is important because it helps regulatory frameworks evolve. A recent Delphi consensus paper co-authored by Dr. Druart acknowledges that biomarker development is a complex process and that a particular challenge is the lack of validation of analytical methods for measuring the microbiome. However, it’s important to remember that techniques can continue to improve even after they’ve been validated. Dr. Druart argues that biomarker validation needs public-private collaborations to design and execute the large clinical studies that are necessary. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Céline Druart PhD: Céline Druart obtained her PhD in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences from UCLouvain (Belgium) in 2014. Following a 3-year project in Patrice Cani’s research group focused on developing the potential beneficial effects of a human gut commensal Akkermansia muciniphila, she worked for 3 years at A-Mansia Biotech (now known as The Akkermansia Company), responsible for clinical programs, regulatory affairs and IP dossiers, as the Scientific and Business Project Manager. Céline joined the PRI in July 2021 as Microbiome Project Manager, managing the Regulatory Science activities of the Association, coordinating Task Group work, and supporting PRI Industry Members in their development planning. She became the PRI’s Executive Director in January 2024. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Identifying features of a healthy microbiome, with Raphaela Joos | 15 May 2025 | 00:27:18 | |
This episode features Raphaela Joos from University College Cork in Ireland, speaking about efforts by the Human Microbiome Action Consortium to create an expert-led consensus around the concept of a healthy human microbiome. Ms. Joos, a PhD student who was first author of the resulting paper, notes that a healthy human microbiome can be defined at many different levels. Some parameters such as diversity and resilience are good for a microbial community, and other parameters such as antimicrobial resistance are good for the microbial community but not necessarily good for the host. Another challenge with the definition was how to define health. The group decided that the definition of healthy microbiome needed to be more inclusive than just the microbiome of a healthy person with no disease diagnoses. At present, causality is not clear so we don’t know whether disease-associated microbiomes are adaptive or are driving the disease. The main consensus that emerged from this expert discussion was that more data are needed, tracking large cohorts of people over time in many geographical areas. Only in this way will it be possible to overcome individual variability and truly identify the robust features of a healthy microbiome. Different microbiome compositions can have similar functional capacities, so possibly a functional signature will emerge. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Raphaela Joos: Born and bred in Germany, I obtained my BSc in Psychology with a focus on biological neuropsychology, nutrition and statistics at Leiden University and the University of Melbourne. Fascinated by nutritional science and its impact on mental health, I then pursued a MSc on the topic of Microbiome in Health and Disease at King’s College London, delving into microbiology, bioinformatics and microbiome science. After the masters I moved to Cork for a research assistant position investigating the structure and infection mechanisms of bacteriophages involved in cheese fermentation using the protein-folding software AlphaFold. Before starting my PhD, I worked as a project manager under Prof Paul Ross and Prof Aonghus Lavelle on the Human Microbiome Project, organising a workshop featuring international leaders in microbiome research to establish a roadmap to define a healthy microbiome. My PhD now focuses on investigating the role of the infant microbiome in development, applying statistical modelling strategies to integrate functional microbiome data with clinical data. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Advancing gut microbiome testing for use in clinical practice, with Dr. Gianluca Ianiro MD PhD | 08 May 2025 | 00:24:09 | |
This episode features Dr. Gianluca Ianiro MD PhD, a gastroenterologist from the Fondazione A. Gemelli IRCCS and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome (Italy), speaking about how to advance gut microbiome testing for use in medicine. His interest in the gut microbiome began with the clinical observation that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was remarkably successful at curing recurrent C. difficile infection – and from there, he began a program of research on FMT. Current gut microbiome tests are widely variable and don’t provide any clinically relevant information, but some people do them out of curiosity. Over the years it’s become increasingly clear that gut microbiome testing must be standardized to move toward clinical utility. Dr. Ianiro co-authored a recent consensus paper on the challenges of gut microbiome testing and how to move toward standardization. He describes several initiatives that aim to standardize and validate gut microbiome testing, from sample collection to analysis. Dr. Ianiro says promising data exist for gut microbiome testing to predict colorectal cancer, to predict the response to some cancer treatments, and to diagnose inflammatory bowel disease. The field is moving toward some important factors that define a microbiome as “healthy”, but these need to be associated with a clear health outcome if they’re eventually to be used in clinical practice. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Gianluca Ianiro MD PhD: Gianluca Ianiro is a gastroenterologist at the Digestive Disease Center of the Fondazione A. Gemelli IRCCS and adjunct professor in gastroenterology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy. He has since gone on to establish himself as a key clinical and translational investigator focusing mainly in the field of intestinal microbiota, and has received several research grants in support of his innovative research. His current research is focused mainly on disentangling the rules of donor microbiome engraftment, on investigating microbiome diagnostics and therapeutics in noncommunicable disorders (including cancer), and on bringing microbiome into clinical practice. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Archive Highlight: Human milk oligosaccharides in the infant gut, with Dr. Simone Renwick PhD | 01 May 2025 | 00:20:57 | |
In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss human milk and the infant gut with Dr. Simone Renwick PhD from Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (MOMI CORE) at UC San Diego, USA. Dr. Renwick talks about her work investigating how communities of microbes versus individual microbes in the infant gut metabolize human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) structures, and what we know about the origin and functions of the microbes contained in human milk. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Dr. Simone Renwick PhD: Dr. Simone Renwick is the Milk & Microbes postdoctoral fellow at the Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (MOMI CORE) at the University of California, San Diego, USA. Her research focuses on understanding the role of human milk components, such as the human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and milk microbiota, in fostering the developing infant gut microbiota. She is also interested in the potential therapeutic applications of milk components in diseases that affect adults. Currently, Simone is supervised by Drs. Lars Bode, Rob Knight, Pieter Dorrestein, and Jack Gilbert. Prior to her postdoc, Simone completed her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) at the University of Guelph, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe. She was the recipient of the Students and Fellows Association poster prize at the ISAPP 2023 meeting in Sitges, Spain. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| How a non-industrialized diet affects gut microbes and health, with Dr. Anissa Armet PhD RD | 26 Apr 2025 | 00:29:19 | |
This episode features Dr. Anissa Armet PhD RD from the University of Alberta in Canada, speaking about the impact of diet on both the gut microbiota and overall health. Dr. Armet, a registered dietitian and researcher, says the Western diet along with the associated gut microbiome changes have played a role (amongst other things) in the rise of autoimmune diseases in industrialized societies. Dr. Armet describes a recent dietary study she and her collaborators published, for which they created a very high fiber diet called the Non-Industrialized Microbiome restore (NiMe, pronounced “nee mee”) diet. They created recipes and meal plans based on what some non-industrialized populations in the world typically consume, which included 45 grams of dietary fiber per day, and only small portions of animal proteins and dairy products. The participants in this controlled feeding trial saw substantial cardiometabolic benefits as well as certain changes in the gut microbiota after three weeks on the diet. Interestingly, the diet initially reduced the diversity of participants’ gut microbiota, likely because of increased pH in the gut, but diversity rebounded toward the end of the trial. The researchers also introduced a strain of L. reuteri isolated from the gut microbiota of people in a non-industrialized society, to observe whether it would engraft since the diet was known to contain growth substrates for the bacteria. Although the strain did not engraft in the gut microbiota (except in one participant), the health benefits of the diet overall were still observed. The researchers concluded that the NiMe diet can be used to target the gut microbiome and change community characteristics that are relevant for health. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Anissa Armet PhD RD: Dr. Anissa Armet is a Registered Dietitian and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta. Anissa completed her PhD in Nutrition and Metabolism in March 2024, then transitioned into her postdoc to research the effects of microbiome-targeted dietary interventions in inflammatory bowel diseases. She uses machine learning to determine if the gut microbiome predicts clinical responses in the context of precision nutrition. Anissa has authored several peer-reviewed publications, including a review on healthy eating in light of the gut microbiome and a dietary intervention trial on microbiome restoration. Being equally passionate about knowledge translation, Anissa co-authored an award-winning, open-access, high-protein cookbook designed to support muscle health, is currently developing a plant-based version, and recently co-authored an open-access ebook, The NiMe Diet: Scientific Principles and Recipes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Interactions of polyphenols in the gut, with Prof. Yves Desjardins PhD | 17 Apr 2025 | 00:30:31 | |
This episode features Prof. Yves Desjardins PhD from Laval University in Canada. Prof. Desjardins, an agrologist by training, explains that polyphenols are metabolites synthesized by plants and present in the plant foods we consume. When humans consume polyphenols, we absorb a small fraction (around 5%) of them in the upper gastrointestinal tract, but most of them reach the colon and interact in various ways with the gut microbiota. They have two main effects in the gut, which appear somewhat contradictory: antibacterial effects and a prebiotic-like effect. In the latter case, polyphenols interact with the host epithelium to induce mucin production, creating a niche for certain bacteria to grow. Typical bacteria that increase under these circumstances are bifidobacteria and Akkermansia muciniphila. In these ways, polyphenols have an impact on certain microorganisms and on the microbiome as a whole. In the future, supplements with polyphenols and fiber may be designed to help manipulate the microbiome in a certain way. Currently there are many health benefits associated with polyphenols. The primary benefit is for cardiometabolic health, and some studies also show benefits for cognition. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Prof. Yves Desjardins PhD: Yves Desjardins is a full professor at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Laval University, Québec, Canada. He holds the NSERC/Symrise Partnership Chair on the prebiotic effects of polyphenols (PhenoBio+). Trained in plant physiology, his research focuses on the phytochemistry and functionality of plant bioactives. He has led numerous preclinical and clinical studies on type-2 diabetes, cognitive decline, inflammation, and infections. His current work explores the impact of tannins on gut microbiota, mucosal immunity, and gut barrier function. He has collaborated with the food industry to validate the health benefits of horticultural products (e.g., Urophenol, Glucophenol, Neurophenol). Recognized for his innovative research on fruit polyphenols, he chaired the first International Symposium on Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables (FAVHEALTH 2005), the OECD Symposium in Lisbon (2010), and organized the 2017 International Congress on Polyphenols and Health in Québec City. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| The interplay between gut microbiota, diet, and circadian rhythms, with Dr. Vanessa Leone PhD | 03 Apr 2025 | 00:32:14 | |
This episode features Dr. Vanessa Leone PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison on how gut microbes and eating patterns impact the host circadian system and overall health. In mouse models, Dr. Leone has found that in a 24-hour period, minor changes occur in the composition of the gut microbiota, while more important changes occur in gut microbiota function (that is, metabolite production). However, these changes depend on the type of diet and the timing of meal consumption. Metabolic health is also affected by this interplay. In humans, obesity is correlated with loss of microbiota rhythmicity, although causality remains unclear. One study by Dirk Haller found that a loss of rhythmicity helped predict which people with prediabetes would progress to diabetes. Constantly shifting timezones (or shifting between day and night shifts) appears to be more detrimental to metabolic health than maintaining a constant schedule, and research is ongoing about what might mitigate these effects. In this field of research it’s important to consider people’s chronotype: their tendency to rise early versus stay up late. In the future, Dr. Leone hopes to untangle more about how different factors affect metabolic health: diet, gut microbiota, and the circadian system. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Vanessa Leone PhD: Vanessa A. Leone, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal & Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also obtained a Ph.D. She performed postdoctoral studies and was an Instructor of Medicine at the University of Chicago in the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, & Nutrition where she examined how the gut microbiome impacts complex metabolic diseases. Dr. Leone currently studies how day vs. night oscillatory patterns of gut microbes influence the body’s internal clock and metabolism. She hopes to mechanistically define what constitutes a microbial oscillator versus a non-oscillator, examine how host factors impact the broader diurnal structure and functional outputs of the gut microbiome, and to determine how microbial oscillations impact host metabolism. These findings will likely pave the way to identify how timed delivery of pre-, pro-, or postbiotics can be leveraged to promote a balanced gut microbiota and improve host health. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| An overview of precision fermentation, with Prof. William Chen PhD | 13 Mar 2025 | 00:24:36 | |
This episode features Prof. William Chen from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, speaking with the ISAPP hosts about precision fermentation. In Singapore, enhancing national food security is of interest and one of the technologies used to achieve this is precision fermentation. Prof. Chen describes the differences between traditional fermentation, biomass fermentation, and precision fermentation. In precision fermentation, food scientists use genetically modified microorganisms to produce a food ingredient of interest. In some cases the product is secreted out of the cell, and in other cases it must be extracted from the cell. The approach has great potential to bypass the need for a large amount of land to produce food, and may reduce costs associated with food production. As this approach continues to develop, education and transparency with consumers is key. Regulatory frameworks and approval processes differ from country to country, and this is an area that will continue to evolve in the years ahead as more food ingredients or other useful products are generated. Episode abbreviations and links: About Prof. William Chen PhD: William Chen is the Michael Fam Endowed Professor and Director of Food Science & Technology Programme at Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He is concurrently Director of Singapore Future Ready Food Safety Hub (FRESH). He is also Director of Singapore Agri-food Innovation Lab. Professor Chen is active in securing and leading large competitive research grants from major government agencies as well as leading international food companies. His food technology innovations have been extensively attracting global attention. His views on food tech innovations, food safety and food security have been regularly covered by major local and international media outlets. He is also advisor/consultant to overseas universities, Singapore government agencies, food industry, and international organizations (ADB, FAO, WHO among others). | |||
| Highlighted Posters from the 2025 ISAPP Annual Meeting | 28 Aug 2025 | 00:22:02 | |
In this second special episode about ISAPP’s annual meeting, held in Banff (Canada) in July 2025, Executive Director Marla Cunningham introduces the four highest-scoring posters from the poster session. Four speakers, all members of the ISAPP Students and Fellows association (SFA), join the podcast to describe the work they presented via poster at the meeting:
Episode abbreviations and links:
Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Precision fermentation for animal-free milk, with Dr. Abigail Thiel PhD | 21 Feb 2025 | 00:28:42 | |
This episode features Dr. Abigail (Abbey) Thiel PhD, who works remotely (from the US) with Wageningen University to manage a project focused on developing animal-free milk proteins using precision fermentation. Dr. Thiel explains that the motivation for the project is to find alternatives to animal-produced foods using microorganisms to produce key components of dairy products. Her project focuses on producing the protein casein, which is found in milk (and contributes to its structure and stability), to eventually produce a milk substitute or a protein powder that could be used as a food ingredient. A specific yeast is used to produce the casein: the scientists insert directions for making the protein into the yeast, then put it in a bioreactor to produce the protein. After that, they figure out how to purify the protein so it can be used in various applications. The final step is upscaling the process to produce abundant and cost-effective casein. The group has also started initial digestion studies to see how the purified casein is digested. Meanwhile, Dr. Thiel is passionate about food science communication and has a YouTube channel called Abbey the Food Scientist, where she strives to build awareness of food science as a career and also to address myths about food science. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Abigail Thiel PhD: Abigail (Abbey) Thiel is a food scientist, educator, and project manager of research focused on producing milk proteins using yeast. She earned her PhD in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. Abbey is passionate about making the science behind food accessible to all. She runs a successful YouTube channel with over 1.4 million views, breaking down food science concepts for everyday audiences, and created an online course, Food Science for Beginners. In addition, she develops high school curriculum and educational resources to help students explore food science as a career path. | |||
| Archive Highlight: An evolutionary perspective on fermented foods, with Assoc. Prof. Katie Amato | 20 Feb 2025 | 00:26:15 | |
Continuing in the series on the latest fermented food science, we are highlighting Episode 9 from our archives. In this episode, the ISAPP hosts talk about fermented foods and non-human primates with Katie Amato of Northwestern University, USA. Amato describes what she has learned from studying the gut microbiota of non-human primates and how it relates to our understanding of human and gut microbial co-evolution over time. She also talks about non-human primate behaviors around fermented foods and what they might tell us about the need for human fermented food consumption. Key topics from this episode:
Episode abbreviations and links: Dissertation study: The Gut Microbiota Appears to Compensate for Seasonal Diet Variation in the Wild Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta pigra) Study: Fermented food consumption in wild nonhuman primates and its ecological drivers Mentors mentioned: Kathy Cottingham, Matt Ayres, David Peart, John Gilbert, Mark McPeek, Craig Layne, Rob McClung. Additional resources: Research on the microbiome and health benefits of fermented foods – a 40 year perspective. ISAPP blog About Assoc. Prof. Katie Amato: Dr. Amato is a biological anthropologist at Northwestern University studying the influence of gut microbes on host ecology and evolution. Her research examines how changes in the gut microbiota impact host nutrition, energetics, and health. She uses non-human primates as models for studying host-gut microbe interactions in selective environments and for providing comparative insight into the evolution of the human gut microbiota. Her main foci are understanding how the gut microbiome may buffer hosts during periods of nutritional stress and how the gut microbiome programs normal inter-specific differences in host metabolism. Dr. Amato is the President of the Midwest Primate Interest Group, an Associate Editor at Microbiome, an Editorial Board member at Folia Primatologica, and a Fellow for the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research’s ‘Humans and the Microbiome’ Program. | |||
| Fermented foods and their health benefits, with Dr. Paul Cotter PhD | 14 Feb 2025 | 00:26:00 | |
This episode features Dr. Paul Cotter PhD of TEAGASC in Ireland, talking about the creation of fermented foods and how they can lead to health benefits. A huge array of foods can be fermented, and historically fermentation was used to extend the shelf life of a food that people had an abundance of. Dr. Cotter’s work in the field originally started with a bacteria-killing bacteriocin that had been isolated from kefir, and later moved toward the microbes in fermented foods. Currently he’s interested in comparing the artisanal approach to fermented foods, which leads to somewhat unpredictable results in the final products, with the industrial approach, which leads to more consistent results. In different artisanal fermented foods, which strains are common and which are unique? Potentially some of the strains can be used to confer a health benefit, and even a benefit that’s personalized to an individual. Dr. Cotter sees the role of fermented foods as possibly targeting pre-disease rather than disease if their ability to confer health benefits can be unravelled further. Episode abbreviations and links:
Additional resources: ISAPP infographic: Fermented foods About Dr. Paul Cotter PhD: Prof Paul Cotter is the Head of Food Biosciences at Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority), is a Principal Investigator with the large Irish Research Centres, APC Microbiome Ireland, VistaMilk and Food for Health Ireland and head of microbiology/co-founder of SeqBiome, a microbiome sequencing and bioinformatics service provider. He is a molecular microbiologist, with a particular focus on the microbiology of foods (especially fermented foods), the food systems and of humans, as well as probiotics and postbiotics. Prof Cotter is the author of >400 peer-reviewed, was included in the Clarivate list of highly cited researchers for 2018-2024, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Antwerp in 2024 and is the Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology. | |||
| How fermented foods can support health and sustainability, with Prof. Christophe Courtin PhD | 06 Feb 2025 | 00:25:10 | |
In this episode, Prof. Christophe Courtin PhD from KU Leuven in Belgium discusses the potential of fermented foods to provide health benefits and create more sustainable food systems. His work focuses in particular on fermenting cereal grains as a way to create products with better properties or enhanced health impact. Fermentation is a form of food processing that can introduce benefits beyond the raw materials used. Prof. Courtin leads HealthFerm, a European project with the aim of generating research on fermentation that supports a transition to more plant-based products in the diet, using wheat, oats, fava bean, and yellow pea. Fermentation can be scaled up both in industrialized countries and in developing countries. More intervention studies are needed to find out the health-promoting components of fermented foods and their mechanisms – although scientists know a fair amount about yogurt and other fermented dairy products, evidence is needed for other types of fermented foods. This episode is part of our series on the latest fermented food science. Episode abbreviations and links:
Additional resources: ISAPP blog post: Food of the future: Fermented and sustainable About Prof. Christophe Courtin PhD: Prof. Christophe Courtin is a full professor at the Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Biochemistry at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on cereal constituents, the enzymes that degrade them and microorganisms in cereal processing. The emphasis is on a basic understanding of the structure and properties of these constituents as well as on their technological and health functionality in cereal-based processes and products. Expertise and an extensive network in this area have been built up through over 40 supervised PhDs, projects and national and international collaborations. He coordinates HealthFerm, a 23 partner Horizon Europe project. He is author of 350 peer-reviewed papers (WoS h-index: 69) and inventor on 12 patent families. Recent awards are the Harald Perten Prize (ICC, 2021) and the Belfort Lecture Award (Whistler Centre for Carbohydrate Research, Purdue University, 2023). | |||
| Archive Highlight: The science of fermented foods, part 2, with Prof. Bob Hutkins | 29 Jan 2025 | 00:25:08 | |
Continuing in the series on the latest fermented food science, we are highlighting Episode 3 from our archives. The hosts continue their discussion of fermented foods with Prof. Bob Hutkins, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Prof. Hutkins elaborates on how the microbes associated with fermented foods may confer health benefits, as well as how food scientists choose strains for fermentation. He emphasizes how the live microbes in fermented foods differ from probiotics. Before listening to this episode, it’s recommended that you check out The science of fermented foods, Part 1. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
Additional resources:
About Prof. Bob Hutkins: Bob Hutkins is the Khem Shahani Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Nebraska. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Nebraska, he was a research scientist at Sanofi Bio Ingredients. The Hutkins Lab studies bacteria important in human health and in fermented foods. His group is particularly interested in understanding factors affecting persistence and colonization of probiotic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract and how prebiotics shift the intestinal microbiota and metabolic activities. The lab also conducts clinical studies using combinations of pro- and prebiotics (synbiotics) to enhance health outcomes. More recently we have developed metagenome-based models that can be used in personalized nutrition. Professor Hutkins has published widely on probiotics, prebiotics, and fermented foods and is the author of the recently published 2nd edition of Microbiology and Technology of Fermented Foods. | |||
| Archive Highlight: The science of fermented foods, part 1, with Prof. Bob Hutkins | 23 Jan 2025 | 00:25:54 | |
Welcome to the first episode of our new series on the latest fermented food science. We are highlighting Episode 1 from our archives with guest Prof. Bob Hutkins, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Prof. Hutkins wrote a popular textbook on fermented foods and has had a 40-year career in fermentation science. He shares why he ended up in fermentation science, as well as how fermented foods are made and how important live microbes are for their health benefits. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
Additional resources:
About Prof. Bob Hutkins: Bob Hutkins is the Khem Shahani Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Nebraska. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University of Nebraska, he was a research scientist at Sanofi Bio Ingredients. The Hutkins Lab studies bacteria important in human health and in fermented foods. His group is particularly interested in understanding factors affecting persistence and colonization of probiotic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract and how prebiotics shift the intestinal microbiota and metabolic activities. The lab also conducts clinical studies using combinations of pro- and prebiotics (synbiotics) to enhance health outcomes. More recently we have developed metagenome-based models that can be used in personalized nutrition. Professor Hutkins has published widely on probiotics, prebiotics, and fermented foods and is the author of the recently published 2nd edition of Microbiology and Technology of Fermented Foods. | |||
| 2024 highlights in biotic science, with ISAPP’s current and past Presidents | 31 Jan 2025 | 00:25:37 | |
In this episode, ISAPP’s current President Prof. Maria Marco PhD and past President Prof. Dan Merenstein join the podcast hosts for a conversation about highlights in biotic science from the past year. Prof. Marco points out a paper published in Nature Microbiology, the result of an ISAPP discussion group exploring whether diet may be a confounder of biotic effects in clinical studies. The group concluded that scientists should work with dietitians to include data on participants’ habitual diet in future studies on biotics – particularly with on prebiotics. These efforts will help scientists establish causality and understand the basis of individual responses to a biotic intervention. Prof. Merenstein highlighted conversations in 2024 around the role of probiotics in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), including ISAPP’s panel on this topic at the annual meeting in Cork, Ireland. Although US regulators have recently warned against the use of probiotics for preterm infants in the NICU setting, the data overwhelmingly points to benefits and this may eventually drive regulatory change. Prof. Marco added that a take-away from ISAPP’s panel was that parents of preterm infants should be included in the decision-making around whether to use probiotics. The guests talked about Prof. Merenstein’s recent appointment to the National Academy of Medicine and his rigorous approach to primary care research. Further highlights in the science this year were ISAPP’s papers exploring evidence for probiotics restoring an antibiotic-disrupted microbiota, and evidence for the benefits of probiotics in healthy individuals – both of which found a lack of conclusive evidence to answer these questions. Many gaps exist in the knowledge around biotics, gut microbiota, and health – for example, another paper this year found that the abundance of microorganisms in a fecal sample is a confounder of microbiome-disease associations. And finally, beyond the scientific advancements, conveying the scientific concepts to the general public requires careful consideration and dedicated effort. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Prof. Maria Marco PhD Dr. Maria Marco, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. She earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at The Pennsylvania State University and her PhD in microbiology at the University of California, Berkeley. As a postdoc at NIZO food research in The Netherlands, she developed a love for lactic acid bacteria and the importance of these microorganisms in our foods and the digestive tract. Her postdoctoral studies led to the discovery that probiotics are metabolically active in the intestine and responsive to dietary intake. Dr. Marco started her lactic acid bacteria and gut health laboratory at UC Davis in 2008 and has built an internationally-recognized, NIH, USDA, and NSF funded research program on probiotics, fermented foods, and dietary modulation of the gut microbiome. Dr. Marco also consults with and has received funding from international foundations and companies to investigate how certain microbes in foods or supplements may benefit health. She is active with science communication activities such as the EATLAC project and is the instructor for two food microbiology courses. Dr. Marco received the American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer award in 2012. Recently, she founded the ongoing Gordon Research Conference series on Lactic Acid Bacteria. Dr. Marco attended her first ISAPP meeting as a postdoc and participated as an invited expert before joining the ISAPP Board of Directors in 2019. About Prof. Dan Merenstein Dr. Daniel Merenstein, MD, is a Professor with tenure of Family Medicine at Georgetown University, where he also directs Family Medicine research. Dr. Merenstein has a secondary appointment in the undergraduate Department of Human Science, in the School of Health. Dr. Merenstein teaches two undergraduate classes, a research capstone and a seminar class on evaluating evidence based medical decisions. He has been funded by PCORI, NIH, USDA, foundations and industry. The primary goal of Dr. Merenstein’s research is to provide answers to common clinical questions that lack evidence and improve patient care. Dr. Merenstein is a clinical trialist who has recruited over 2,000 participants for 10 probiotic trials since 2006. He is an expert on probiotics, on antibiotic stewardship in outpatient settings, and also conducts HIV research in a large women’s cohort. He sees patients in clinic one day a week. Dan lives in Maryland with his wife and 4 boys. | |||
| Gut microbes and other drivers of inflammation in Parkinson’s disease, with Prof. Malú Tansey PhD and Dr. Andrea Merchak PhD | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:30:59 | |
This episode features Prof. Malú Tansey PhD and colleague Dr. Andrea Merchak PhD from the University of Florida, USA, discussing neuroinflammation and the role of gut microbes in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. “Inflammaging” tends to occur as aging progresses, but the links that have been made between the gut and the brain in PD have led their group to the hypothesis that PD may be an age-acquired autoimmune condition. Genetic factors are relevant, although not everyone with PD has the predisposing genes. Those with a certain genetic mutation have a different immune phenotype from normal. Furthermore, the gut microbiota influences the immune system and the inflammatory environment within the body, with some metabolites known to cross the blood-brain barrier and influence the immune cells of the brain. Currently the group is focusing on using the gut microbiome, blood, and colonic biopsies to gain insights into the brain. A combination of diet and probiotics is promising as an intervention to prevent neurodegeneration as people age. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Prof. Malú Tansey PhD: Malú Gámez Tansey, Ph.D. is the Norman and Susan Fixel Chair in Neuroscience and Neurology and former Director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida. Her lab focuses on the role of inflammation and immune system responses in brain health and neurodegenerative disease, with particular focus on central-peripheral neuroimmune crosstalk and the gut-brain axis, with the long-term goal of developing better therapies to prevent and/or delay these diseases. Dr. Tansey obtained her B.S/M.S in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Cell Regulation from UT Southwestern followed by post-doctoral work in neuroscience at Washington University. As head of Chemical Genetics at Xencor, she co-invented novel soluble TNF inhibitors that have now advanced to clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease. She returned to academia as an Assistant Professor of Physiology at UT Southwestern in 2002 and was recruited to Emory University School of Medicine as a tenured Associate Professor in 2009. After 10 year at Emory and rising to the rank of Full Professor where she earned several mentoring awards from students and faculty for her efforts in championing early-stage investigators, women and other under-represented groups in STEM, she was recruited to the Department of Neuroscience in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, where she served on the executive committees for the McKnight Brain Institute and the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. She will be moving to the Stark Neuroscience Research Institute at Indiana University in Indianapolis in January of 2025 as the first Director of Neuroimmunology Research and Executive Associate Director of Education at the Stark NRI. About Dr. Andrea Merchak PhD: Andrea Merchak, Ph.D. is a Gator Neuroscholar Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Florida. She obtained her B.S. at Centre College with a focus on behavioral neuroscience and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. There, her thesis work explored the link between the gut microbiota and the brain in mood disorders and multiple sclerosis. Her current work explores the relationship between gut health and genetic predispositions for neurodegeneration. She has received recognition for her work through the Young Scientist Award from the International Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Gut Microbiome Conference, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the University of Virginia, as well as a track record of funding from the NIH. She will be moving to the Stark Neuroscience Research Institute at Indiana University in Indianapolis in March of 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Neurology. | |||
| Using a microbiota-gut-brain axis on a microfluidic chip to gain insights into neurodegenerative diseases, with Prof. Kerensa Broersen PhD | 12 Dec 2024 | 00:29:12 | |
This episode features Prof. Kerensa Broersen PhD from University of Twente in the Netherlands, speaking about using an innovative model of the microbiota-gut-brain axis to learn about neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Prof. Broersen says that while clinical studies are applicable to human health and animal models have great physiological complexity, her lab focuses on a model that’s more flexible and that allows manipulation of specific signalling events – a microbiota-gut-brain axis on a microfluidic chip. To make the brain component, they use stem cells from healthy people (from bone marrow, blood, or urine), which can differentiate into different types of cells depending on the factors they’re exposed to. They create cells that represent different areas of the brain, and can keep them alive and functional for at least 100 days. They can also represent disease processes in the model. It’s known that the gut microbiota is involved in neurological disease and may be either a cause or consequence of the brain pathology; so in this model, the scientists culture gut microbes in one microfluidic device and the brain in another microfluidic device, then connect the two. This allows them to make changes in one compartment and see how it affects the other. In this way, Prof. Broersen is aiming to understand some of the very basic mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease development and progression. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Prof. Kerensa Broersen PhD: Kerensa Broersen obtained a PhD in food chemistry from Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands, in 2005, followed by two postdoctoral positions at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK and the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, both focussing on protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disorders. She then joined the University of Twente at a tenure track assistant professor position to further investigate neurodegenerative disorders making use of neuronal cell types. Following a sabbatical at the University of California – Berkeley, in the group of Randy Schekman, Kerensa Broersen moved into the field of gut-brain communication studying the fundamentals of signaling pathways driving the intricate interaction between the intestinal microbiome, the gut and the brain. For this, she is making use of the differentiation potential of stem cells to create mini-versions of the organs involved cultured onto microfluidic devices. | |||
| Developing probiotics for neurodegenerative disease, with Dr. Alex Parker PhD | 05 Dec 2024 | 00:28:36 | |
This episode features Dr. Alex Parker PhD from Université de Montréal talking about models for studying neurodegenerative diseases. His lab makes use of the worm C. elegans, a common model organism for studying disease and aging as it has many genes in common with humans. Focusing on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Dr. Parker makes models that reflect some aspect of the disease – in this case, genes that are directly linked to ALS are directly expressed in the nervous systems of the worms. Then the lab screens different small molecules from drug collections to see what seems to protect the worms from neurodegeneration. In human ALS, the microbiome is a potential factor that could influence the development of disease if a genetic predisposition is present. Dr. Parker’s lab screened a collection of microorganisms and found one strain that protected the worms from progression of neurodegeneration. Simultaneously, they saw that genes involved in lipid metabolism were being altered. Their work indicates a signaling mechanism from the intestine to the nervous system turns on a protective pathway in the worms – and interestingly, feeding the worms fatty acids directly was not as effective, possibly indicating that the live microorganism is working through multiple pathways. Currently the group is testing the probiotic in mouse models and in an upcoming clinical trial examining how the lipid profile of ALS patients changes as the disease progresses. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Alex Parker PhD: Alex Parker obtained a PhD in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia with Dr. Ann Rose using the model organism C. elegans to study Huntington’s disease. From there he did postdoctoral training with Dr. Christian Neri at INSERM, (Paris, France) to develop drug discovery methods for trinucleotide repeat disorders. He is now a professor in the department of neuroscience at the Universite de Montreal, and a researcher at the CRCHUM. His research focuses on developing genetic models for a wide range neurodegenerative diseases with a special focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to find new therapeutic strategies with translation to clinical settings. Recently his team discovered a probiotic that protects against neurodegeneration in animal models and is now part of a clinical trial for ALS. | |||
| Highlighted Talks from the 2025 ISAPP Annual Meeting | 21 Aug 2025 | 00:28:16 | |
In this special episode, ISAPP’s Executive Director Marla Cunningham highlights ISAPP’s annual meeting, held in Banff, Canada in July 2025. Four speakers join the podcast to describe their talks from the meeting:
Episode abbreviations and links:
About our speakers: Carolina Tropini, University of British Columbia, Canada Dr. Carolina Tropini is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the School of Biomedical Engineering, and a Canada Tier 2 Research Chair in Quantitative Microbiota Biology for Health Applications. In 2020 she was nominated a Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator, and she was the first Canadian to be awarded the Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D Scholar, which was granted in the field of Engineering. She is the inaugural Alan Bernstein Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Fellow in the Humans & the Microbiome Program and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. In 2019, she was nominated as a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar. The Tropini lab is investigating how a disrupted physical environment due to altered nutrition or concurrent with intestinal diseases affects the microbiota and host at a multi-scale level. They are a cross-disciplinary group that incorporates techniques from microbiology, bioengineering and biophysics to create highly parallel assays and study how bacteria and microbial communities function, with the goal of translating the knowledge gained to improve human health. Dr. Tropini conducted her Ph.D. in Biophysics at Stanford University. Her studies in the laboratory of Dr. KC Huang combined computational and experimental techniques to investigate bacterial mechanics and morphogenesis. In 2014 she received the James S. McDonnell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, and she joined the laboratory of Dr. Justin Sonnenburg at Stanford. During her post-doc, Dr. Tropini applied her background in biophysics to study the impact of physical perturbations on host-associated microbial communities living in the gut. André Marette, Université Laval, Canada Dr. André Marette is a Professor of Medicine and researcher at the Heart and Lung Institute Hospital Center (IUCPQ), and at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF) at Laval University. He holds a Valbiotis Research Chair in plant bioactives and metabolic liver diseases and a Pfizer Research Fund in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and cardiovascular complications. Dr. Marette is an international renowned expert on how nutrition and the microbiome modulate immunometabolic pathways involved in obesity and cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). He is investigating the metabolic impact of nutritional interventions and microbiome-based therapeutics (probiotics, prebiotics) using both clinical and pre-clinical studies, and uses various cellular models and molecular tools to discover novel disease biomarkers and mechanistic targets. Dr. Marette’s research work has been published in over 330 papers, reviews and book chapters and also authored two books. He has received several awards for his work including the prestigious Charles Best Award and Lectureship from the University of Toronto for his overall contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field of diabetes. Peijun Tian, Jiangnan University, P. R. China Peijun Tian is an Associate Professor and Master’s supervisor at the School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University. He earned his Ph.D. in Food Science from Jiangnan University (January 2021) and was a visiting scholar at the APC Microbiome Institute, Ireland (September 2019–October 2020). He completed postdoctoral research at Jiangnan University, supported by the prestigious “National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talent” (top 1% in China). His research focuses on elucidating the interactions between gut microbiota and brain function, exploring the application of probiotics to mitigate stress, support neurodevelopment, and address neurodegenerative disorders. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles, including three ESI Highly Cited Papers, with an H-index of 23 (Google Scholar, March 2025). In 2025, he was honored with the Glenn Gibson Early Career Researcher Award by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP). Josiane Kenfack, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon Josiane Kenfack is a PhD student passionate about scientific research aimed at improving women’s health through the advancement of studies of the vaginal microbiome and probiotics. Josiane is co-coordinator of a citizen science project in Cameroon, the LEKE project. This project was inspired by the Isala project (https://isala.be/en/) which aims to better understand the female microbiome while raising awareness about vaginal health and breaking taboos. Through the LEKE project, Josiane and colleagues have conducted field activities to explore vaginal and menstrual health and promote good practices with women and men in rural and urban areas. In her ongoing research, she is investigating beneficial lactobacilli that could serve as biotherapeutics or probiotics development to combat conditions such as bacterial vaginosis, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections which are still prevalent in Africa. while she co-coordinates in Cameroon the IMVAHA project which aims to determine the impact of different menstrual products on the vaginal microbiome. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Archive Highlight: New evidence on the virome in gut-brain communication and stress, with Nathaniel Ritz and Thomaz Bastiaanssen | 29 Nov 2024 | 00:31:48 | |
Continuing our series on the microbiota-gut-brain axis, we are highlighting Episode 34 from our archives. In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss a new study on how the gut virome affects the host during stress, with Nathaniel (Nate) Ritz from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, USA and Thomaz Bastiaanssen from APC Microbiome Ireland. The guests give an overview of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, then delve into a new study they led on the virome and its effects on stress responses in mice. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Nathaniel Ritz: Dr. Nathaniel Ritz completed his PhD in Prof. John Cryan’s lab at APC Microbiome Ireland where he studied the role of the bacteriome and the virome in social and stress-related disorders. His interests lie in elucidating microbiota-host interactions and establishing microbiota causality within the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Nathaniel has recently moved to Seattle, Washington, USA, to join the lab of Dr. Sid Venkatesh as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Systems Biology to further unravel the mechanisms underpinning microbe-host interaction. Outside of the lab, Nathaniel is an avid rock climber, dog walker, and partner to fellow scientist Dr. Minke Nota. More details and current position can be found at https://venkatesh.isbscience.org/ About Thomaz Bastiaanssen: Dr. Thomaz Bastiaanssen is the lead bioinformatician in Prof. John F. Cryan’s microbiota-gut-brain axis group in Cork, Ireland. He is interested in the ecological dynamics governing host-microbe communication and how this complex interplay can impact human well-being. He will soon transition to a new role at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands, where he will continue to study the microbiome gut-brain axis. Besides working on multi-omics analyses, he enjoys horror stories, tabletop games and spending time with his wife, son, and corgi. His website can be found at: https://thomazbastiaanssen.github.io/ | |||
| Archive Highlight: The role of microbes in gut-brain communication, with Prof. Emeran Mayer MD | 29 Nov 2024 | 00:27:23 | |
Continuing our series on the microbiota-gut-brain axis, we are highlighting Episode 26 from our archives. In this episode, ISAPP podcast host Prof. Dan Tancredi PhD welcomes guest Prof. Emeran Mayer MD, a gastroenterologist and researcher at University of California Los Angeles. They talk about the microbiota-gut-brain axis, covering its evolutionary origins and how this complex system works in the human body to support overall health. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Prof. Emeran Mayer MD: Emeran A Mayer is a Gastroenterologist, Neuroscientist and Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience and Founding Director of the Goodman Luskin Microbiome Center at UCLA. He is one of the pioneers and leading researchers in the bidirectional communication within the brain gut microbiome system with wide-ranging applications in intestinal and brain disorders. He has published 415 scientific papers, co edited 3 books and has an h-index of 125. He published the best selling books The Mind Gut Connection in 2016, the Gut Immune Connection in June 2021, and the recipe book Interconnected Plates in 2023. He is currently working on a MasterClass and a PBS documentary about the mind gut immune connection. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 David McLean award from the American Psychosomatic Society and the 2017 Ismar Boas Medal from the German Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Disease. | |||
| How the maternal microbiome influences offspring neurodevelopment, with Dr. Eldin Jašarević PhD | 16 Nov 2024 | 00:30:28 | |
This episode features Dr. Eldin Jašarević PhD from University of Pittsburgh discussing research that investigates how maternal signals influence the general development and neurodevelopment of the offspring. Dr. Jašarević’s particular interest in this field stems from his family’s journey as refugees from Bosnia who found their way to the US. His lab studies how maternal stress or diet signals the developing brain to facilitate a lasting change, focusing on the role of the gut and vaginal microbiomes. His work in mouse models has shown that even mild stressors early in pregnancy trigger a gut microbiome change that lasts, but the challenge is to figure out whether the microbiome is responsible for the lasting effect. More human intervention studies are needed to understand how these findings may benefit pregnant women and the eventual development of their children. Regarding brain development, germ-free mice have brains that grow and develop differently from mice with an intact microbiome: for example, microbial metabolites are involved in key epigenetic processes for the brain. In general, the field may be moving toward understanding host-microbial interactions and dispersal of microbial-derived metabolites in pre-conception health and fertility, to eventually enable earlier intervention. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Eldin Jašarević PhD: Eldin Jašarević is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Principal Investigator at Magee-Womens Research Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Missouri, where he worked at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. His predoctoral research focused on the role of maternal lifetime experiences on brain development. During his postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Tracy Bale at the University of Pennsylvania, Eldin defined mechanisms by which disease susceptibility can be transferred across generations via the microbiome. His current research focuses on understanding how microbial-derived signals act as regulators of development, with particular emphasis on the germline. His contributions to the field have been recognized through his selection as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, a Burroughs Wellcome Fellow, and through research funding from NIMH, NICHD, and NIDDK. | |||
| Fiber and short-chain fatty acids for cognitive health, with Dr. Boushra Dalile PhD | 08 Nov 2024 | 00:28:16 | |
This episode features Dr. Boushra Dalile PhD from KU Leuven in Belgium – ISAPP’s 2024 Glenn Gibson Early Career Researcher Award winner – discussing the protective role of fiber and prebiotics on cognitive health. Dr. Dalile is trained in psychology, and in her current work she undertakes human intervention studies to examine the effects of interventions using fibers, prebiotic fibers, and / or short-chain fatty acids on human stress- and anxiety- related processes. Fermentable fibers in the diet are known to result in the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and she has been involved in studies in which participants receive the SCFAs directly. Interestingly, sufficient SCFAs circulating in the blood are required for protection against a stressor, regardless of any intervention. Dr. Dalile explains that cognitive deterioration may start 20 to 30 years before the first symptoms occur in later life, so that prevention (or “cognitive resilience”) is the most promising strategy. So far, the best recommendation is to maintain a fiber-rich diet throughout adulthood, although various research groups are working to find out whether a specific intervention could be effective for protecting cognition. This episode is the first of a series on the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Episode abbreviations and links:
Additional resources: ISAPP blog post: Can we estimate prebiotic effects from short-chain fatty acid production? About Dr. Boushra Dalile PhD: Dr. Boushra Dalile PhD is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Laboratory of Biological Psychology at KU Leuven, Belgium. She was trained in psychology (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) and cognitive neuroscience (University of Skövde, Sweden; The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany), before being awarded a PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 2021 at the Translational Research Center for Gastrointestinal Disorders at KU Leuven under supervision of Prof. Kristin Verbeke. Since her PhD, she investigates the effects of dietary fiber and the role of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) on stress and anxiety, and is currently mapping out their putative mechanisms of action in humans. Her latest research seeks to harness butyrate’s neuro-psychopharmacological potential in modulating learning and memory to advance translational research on anxiety and help shape treatment options and dietary recommendations. Her work was published in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, The Lancet Planetary Health, Neuropsychopharmacology, and Psychoneuroendocrinology. | |||
| Archive Highlight: Biotics in animal and human nutrition, with Prof. Kelly Swanson PhD | 24 Oct 2024 | 00:27:43 | |
Completing our series on the role of biotics in animal health, we are highlighting Episode 22 from our archives. In this episode, Prof. Kelly Swanson PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discusses the role of biotics in animal and human nutrition. He reviews the criteria for prebiotics and synbiotics, then discusses how we gain knowledge about nutrition and the role of biotics in animals compared to humans. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
Additional resources:
About Prof. Kelly Swanson: Kelly Swanson is the Kraft Heinz Company Endowed Professor in Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His laboratory studies the effects of nutritional interventions, identifying how diet impacts host physiology and gut microbiota. His lab’s primary emphasis is on gastrointestinal health and obesity in dogs, cats, and humans. Much of his work has focused on dietary fibers and ‘biotics’. Kelly has trained over 40 graduate students and postdocs, published over 235 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and given over 150 invited lectures at scientific conferences. He is an active instructor, teaching 3-4 nutrition courses annually, and has been named to the university’s ‘List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students’ 30 times. He serves on advisory boards for many companies in the human and pet food industries and non-profit organizations, including the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences and International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics. | |||
| Developing probiotics to prevent white nose syndrome in bats, with Prof. Ann Cheeptham PhD | 24 Oct 2024 | 00:26:44 | |
This episode features Prof. Naowarat (Ann) Cheeptham, a cave microbiologist from Thompson Rivers University (Canada), speaking about a fungal infection in bats that causes white nose syndrome. She and her collaborators are looking at the microbiomes of the bats and their environments for possible ways to prevent this serious infection. White nose syndrome is caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans infecting bats in hibernation and causing them to act in unnatural ways. The condition has caused massive death of bats in North America, although not in other regions of the world with the same fungus. Dr. Cheeptham and colleagues are looking for strategies to prevent white nose syndrome. Initially they screened environmental bacteria with activity against the fungus, but had difficulty knowing how to apply these bacteria to the bats. Their current approach is to take four bacterial strains isolated from healthy bats and apply them in bat boxes so they may become established on the vulnerable bats to prevent white nose syndrome. The preventative actions of the bacteria are still under investigation, but the collaborators believe the mechanism is related to metabolite production. This episode is part of a series on the role of biotics in animal health. Episode abbreviations and links:
Dr. Cheeptham is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Her research interests include cave microbiomes/new drug discovery, white-nose syndrome in bats, alternative treatment tools against multidrug-resistant infections, and geomicrobiology. Her work has fortunately been featured in the New York Times, WIRED, Bloomberg TV network’s Spark series, Al Jazeera TV, the CBC’s Nature of Things (The Antibiotic Hunters episode), Global TV (Global 16×9 and Global Health), Knowledge Network, CBC radio (Daybreak) and in several International and Canadian magazines. Besides her passion for cave microbiology and research, she is also drawn to pedagogical issues in microbiology education. Recently, she has been the recipient of the 2022 3M National Teaching Fellowship from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and 3M, the 2020 TRU Faculty Excellence Award, and the 2020 D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning STLHE and D2L (Desire2Learn). | |||
| Targeting the rumen microbiota for reduced methane production, with Prof. Alex Hristov PhD | 17 Oct 2024 | 00:26:02 | |
This episode features Prof. Alex Hristov PhD from Penn State University (USA) talking about the microbiota of ruminants and how it can be targeted for reduced methane production. The rumen (pre-stomach area) of cows and other animals contains microorganisms that digest the feed before it enters the rest of the gastrointestinal tract. Hydrogen is produced to inhibit further fermentation of the feed, and this hydrogen is rapidly converted to enteric methane, which is emitted by the animal – accounting for a large proportion of methane emissions that contribute to global warming. Several approaches exist for targeting the rumen microbiota with the aim of reducing methane emissions. Some feed additives, including one recently approved by regulators in the US, can reduce enteric methane by around 30% and appear safe for the animal. Vaccines against the methane-producing archaea in the rumen are another potential approach suitable for grazing livestock. Direct microbials have also been advanced. Many other sources of methane emissions exist besides livestock, but significantly reducing the methane production in the livestock industry could have a major positive impact on global warming. Feed additives for now are the leading strategy, and adoption of existing solutions in multiple places is critical. This episode is part of a series on the role of biotics in animal health. Episode abbreviations and links:
Dr. Alexander N. Hristov is a Distinguished Professor of Dairy Nutrition in the Department of Animal Science at The Pennsylvania State University. He has a Ph.D. in Animal Nutrition from his native Bulgaria. Hristov has worked at the USDA-ARS Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, WI, the Ag Canada Research Center in Lethbridge, AB, was on the faculty at the Department of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Idaho from 1999 to 2008 and is at Penn State since 2008. Hristov’s main research interests are in the areas of mitigation of nutrient losses and gaseous emissions from dairy operations and protein and amino acid nutrition of dairy cattle. He has published over 220 peer-reviewed journal papers, books, and book chapters. | |||
| Archive Highlight: Prebiotics for animal health, with Prof. George Fahey | 23 Oct 2024 | 00:31:04 | |
Continuing our series on the role of biotics in animal health, we are highlighting Episode 5 from our archives. This episode features a former ISAPP board member, Prof. George Fahey, giving an overview of animal prebiotic research and describing future opportunities for prebiotics in animal nutrition. Prof. George Fahey is a prominent animal nutrition scientist who is currently Professor Emeritus at University of Illinois. Fahey explains how animal nutrition research relates to human nutrition research, and the changes in the field he has seen over the course of his long career. He describes the research on prebiotics for animal nutrition, covering both livestock and companion animals. Key topics from this episode:
Expert consensus document: The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on the definition and scope of prebiotics George C. Fahey, Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Animal Sciences and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He served on the faculty since 1976 and held research, teaching, and administrative appointments. His research was in the area of carbohydrate nutrition of animals and humans. He published numerous books, book chapters, journal articles, and research abstracts. He currently serves on two editorial boards, numerous GRAS expert panels, and is scientific advisor to both industry and governmental organizations. He retired from the University in 2010 but continues to serve on graduate student committees and departmental search committees. He owns Fahey Nutrition Consulting, Inc. that provides services to the human and pet food industries. | |||
| Understanding the gut microbiome in dogs and other pets, with Prof. Jan Suchodolski DACVM PhD | 17 Oct 2024 | 00:24:06 | |
This episode features Prof. Jan Suchodolski DACVM PhD from Texas A&M University, discussing the gut microbiome in dogs and other companion animals as part of our series on the role of biotics in animal health. Prof. Suchodolski’s lab focuses on understanding gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in pets and developing diagnostic tests for research and clinical practice. His lab works on building a model of what’s happening with animal health, combining microbiome measures with measures of host health. For example, they found that severe gut microbiome dysbiosis in dogs reflected a greater extent of mucosal damage, contributing to the big picture of GI disease. Certain microbiome features when combined with metabolites are promising biomarkers of GI disease in pets. Test reproducibility is highly important, and treatment tends to be multi-modal. Prof. Suchodolski cautions against direct-to-consumer pet microbiome tests, noting that unvalidated assays are very common. Episode abbreviations and links:
Jan S. Suchodolski is a professor, Purina PetCare Endowed Chair for Microbiome Research, associate director and head of microbiome sciences at the Gastrointestinal Laboratory at Texas A&M University. He received his DrVetMed from the University Vienna, Austria and his PhD in veterinary microbiology from Texas A&M University. He is board certified in immunology by the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (ACVM). His research is focused on developing biomarkers for gastrointestinal disease and therapeutic approaches for the modulation of the intestinal microbiota. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed articles in the area of veterinary gastroenterology and microbiome research. In 2024, he received the AVMA career achievement in canine research award. | |||
| Biotics for agricultural animals, with Prof. Steve Ricke PhD | 17 Oct 2024 | 00:27:06 | |
This episode, part of a series on the role of biotics in animal health, is a broad-ranging conversation on biotics for agricultural animals, with Prof. Steve Ricke PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof. Ricke explains some of the different applications of biotics for poultry as well as swine and ruminants: rapid growth, efficient use of feed, and reducing inflammation. Biotics may also have a role in food safety as it relates to agricultural animals, with research showing how microbiome diversity shapes the impact of pathogens. Animal genetics, diet, and microbiome interactions are extremely complex and fortunately the tools to study these interactions have improved in the past several decades. Prof. Ricke urges scientists to take into account the microbial ecology surrounding the animal – and not to forget the potential impact of the animal on its environment. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Prof. Steve Ricke PhD: Prof. Steven C. Ricke received his B.S. and M.S. from the Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL. and Ph.D. from the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. Prof. Ricke was a USDA-ARS postdoctorate in the Microbiology Department at North Carolina State Univ. then joined Texas A&M Univ. as a professor in the Poultry Science Dept. In 2005, he became the first holder of the new Donald “Buddy” Wray Endowed Chair in Food Safety and Director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Arkansas (UA) and was a faculty member of the Dept. of Food Science and Cellular/ Molecular Graduate program. In 2020 he became the Director of the Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery Program in the Animal and Dairy Sciences Dept. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof. Ricke’s lab conducts studies on the growth, survival, and pathogenesis of pathogens in the poultry gut and their interactions with gut microbiota. | |||
| Unraveling the functions of GLP-1 in the gut, with Dr. Thomas Greiner PhD | 17 Jul 2025 | 00:24:34 | |
This episode features Dr. Thomas Greiner PhD from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), speaking about the various functions of GLP-1 in the gut, and the role of gut microbes in GLP-1 production, with ultimate effects on host health. He noted that GLP-1 is produced by enteroendocrine cells called L-cells, both in the small intestine and the colon. These cells respond to nutrients and microbially-produced short-chain fatty acids, but responses differ between the small intestine and colon, leading Dr. Greiner to investigate the different functions of GLP-1 at these two sites. Using germ-free mice and other models, Dr. Greiner has developed a hypothesis that the function of GLP-1 in the small intestine is to improve insulin secretion postprandially, whereas the functions of GLP-1 in the colon are to allow for increased energy intake (in a situation of energy deficiency), dampen inflammation, and protect local tissues. He and his colleagues are taking two different approaches in aiming to improve metabolic health in humans: finding inhibitors of bacterial enzymes to decrease production of a harmful molecule produced by bacteria; and a probiotic approach of administering butyrate-producing bacteria. With the latter approach, the sensitivity of the bacteria to oxygen is a problem to overcome, but their group has evolved a bacterial strain to tolerate some oxygen, with the idea of testing it as a probiotic. Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Thomas Greiner PhD: Thomas Greiner is a medical scientist at the Wallenberg Laboratory, University of Gothenburg, with over 15 years of experience in functional genetics and metabolic research. His work focuses on the intricate interplay between gut microbiota, intestinal hormones such as GLP-1, and host metabolism. He has explored how microbial and hormonal signals influence energy balance, intestinal function, and the development of metabolic diseases. His research primarily uses molecular approaches in mouse models to investigate the role of microbial signals in metabolic disease and to uncover new functions of gut hormones in regulating intestinal physiology. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Episode 38: Microbes that break down mucus and milk to benefit the host, with Dr. Clara Belzer PhD | 26 Jul 2024 | 00:28:39 | |
The ISAPP hosts discuss microbes, mucus, and milk with Dr. Clara Belzer PhD from Wageningen University in the Netherlands in this episode. Dr. Belzer, a molecular geneticist, specializes in studying the microorganisms that are equipped to break down the glycans in mucus and human milk within the host environment. Key topics from this episode:
Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Clara Belzer PhD: Dr. Clara Belzer is Associate Professor Microbiology at the Laboratory of Microbiology of Wageningen University. The Belzer group is called ‘Microbes Mucus and Milk’ and the research is focused on the interaction of the gut microbiome with host mucus and milk. After obtaining her PhD at the Erasmus Medical Center Dr. Belzer did a postdoc at Harvard medical school. By now Dr. Belzer has years of experience on gut microbiome studies on anaerobes, including synthetic communities and different biotic concepts, with a special interest for the Akkermansia muciniphila. The group of Dr. Belzer works on several microbiome HMO and mucus related topics funded by national and international grants, some also in collaboration with medical centers and industry. | |||
| Episode 37: Targeting the gut microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease, with Prof. Harry Sokol MD PhD | 19 Jun 2024 | 00:26:53 | |
The ISAPP hosts discuss the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with leading expert Prof. Harry Sokol MD PhD, who is Professor of Gastroenterology at Saint Antoine Hospital and has positions with Sorbonne University and the Micalis Institute, INRAE in Paris, France. Sokol talks about the specific gut bacteria that seem to be important in IBD, as well as the challenge of targeting the gut microbiome for therapeutic effects. Key topics from this episode:
Harry Sokol is Professor in the Gastroenterology department of Saint-Antoine Hospital (APHP, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France). the co-director of the Microbiota, Gut & Inflammation team (INSERM CRSA UMRS 938, Sorbonne Université, Paris), group leader in Micalis institute (INRAE) and coordinator of the “Paris Center for Microbiome Medicine” (www.fhu-pacemm.fr/). He is an internationally recognized expert in the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and gut microbiota fields, in which he has published more than 330 papers in major journals. He is the current president of the French group of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation, and the head of the APHP Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Center. His work on the role of gut microbiota in IBD pathogenesis led to landmark papers, including the identification of the pivotal role of the commensal bacteria Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in gut homeostasis and IBD. Currently, his work focuses on deciphering gut microbiota–host interactions in health and disease to better understand their role in pathogenesis and develop innovative treatments. Harry received two grants from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2016 and 2022, and he is a member of the International Organization for the Study of IBD (IOIBD). Since 2020, he is recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate, Web of Science). Harry Sokol is currently Associate Editor for Gastroenterology. Harry Sokol co-founded Exeliom biosciences (https://www.exeliombio.com/). Find Harry on X/Twitter: @h_sokol | |||
| Episode 36: Uncovering the mechanisms of sorbitol intolerance, with Dr. Jee-Yon Lee MD PhD | 17 May 2024 | 00:27:20 | |
This episode features Dr. Jee-Yon Lee MD PhD, assistant project scientist at the University of California Davis, USA, speaking about a recent paper on the mechanisms of sorbitol intolerance and the contributions of the gut microbiota. Dr. Lee explains how gut microbes in the large intestine can drive sorbitol intolerance, and how their research group designed a probiotic intervention to ameliorate it in a mouse model. Key topics from this episode:
Dr. Jee-Yon Lee is an Assistant Project Scientist in Dr. Andreas Baumler’s lab at UC Davis, focusing on studying host-microbial interactions and their impact on human health and non-communicable diseases. She earned her MD and PhD from Yonsei University College of Medicine and served as a family medicine physician in South Korea until 2017. She joined Dr. Andreas Baumler’s lab in 2017 as a visiting scholar and completed her postdoctoral research there. Dr. Lee’s long-term research goal is to elucidate the ecological causes of dysbiosis, its consequences on the development of human diseases, and to find potential therapeutics targeting the microbiome. | |||
| Episode 35: Investigating gut microbiome links to chronic diseases, with Dr. Purna Kashyap MBBS | 10 Apr 2024 | 00:29:20 | |
In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss the gut microbiome’s role in chronic diseases with Dr. Purna Kashyap MBBS, from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. Dr. Kashyap talks about how to discover the complex factors that trigger and perpetuate chronic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, zeroing in on the gut microbiome as a contributor to different aspects of gastrointestinal (GI) tract physiology. Key topics from this episode:
About Dr. Purna Kashyap: Dr. Purna Kashyap is practicing gastroenterologist and Professor of Medicine and Physiology, the Bernard and Edith Waterman Director of the Microbiome program, and Director of the germ-free mouse facility in the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. The NIH funded Gut Microbiome laboratory led by Dr. Kashyap is focused on delineating the complex interactions between diet, gut microbiome, and host gastrointestinal physiology. The laboratory uses germ-free mouse models in conjunction with measures of gastrointestinal physiology in vitro and in vivo to investigate effects of gut microbial products on host gastrointestinal function. In parallel, they use a systems approach incorporating multi-omics, patient metadata, and physiologic tissue responses in human studies, to aid in discovery of novel microbial drivers of disease. The overall goal of the program is to develop novel microbiota-targeted therapies. Dr. Kashyap has published nearly 100 peer reviewed articles including journals like Cell, Cell Host Microbe, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, and Gastroenterology. He was inducted to American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2021. He has previously served on the scientific advisory board of American Gastroenterology Association Gut Microbiome Center, and on the council of American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society. He now serves on the council and the research committee of AGA, in an editorial role for Gut Microbes and as an ad hoc reviewer on NIH study sections. | |||
| Episode 34: New evidence on the virome in gut-brain communication and stress, with Nathaniel Ritz and Thomaz Bastiaanssen | 09 Mar 2024 | 00:32:35 | |
In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss a new study on how the gut virome affects the host during stress, with Nathaniel (Nate) Ritz from the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, USA and Thomaz Bastiaanssen from APC Microbiome Ireland. The guests give an overview of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, then delve into a new study they led on the virome and its effects on stress responses in mice. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Nathaniel Ritz PhD: Dr. Nathaniel Ritz completed his PhD in Prof. John Cryan’s lab at APC Microbiome Ireland where he studied the role of the bacteriome and the virome in social and stress-related disorders. His interests lie in elucidating microbiota-host interactions and establishing microbiota causality within the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Nathaniel has recently moved to Seattle, Washington, USA, to join the lab of Dr. Sid Venkatesh as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Systems Biology to further unravel the mechanisms underpinning microbe-host interaction. Outside of the lab, Nathaniel is an avid rock climber, dog walker, and partner to fellow scientist Dr. Minke Nota. More details and current position can be found at https://venkatesh.isbscience.org/ About Dr. Thomaz Bastiaanssen PhD: Dr. Thomaz Bastiaanssen is the lead bioinformatician in Prof. John F. Cryan’s microbiota-gut-brain axis group in Cork, Ireland. He is interested in the ecological dynamics governing host-microbe communication and how this complex interplay can impact human well-being. He will soon transition to a new role at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands, where he will continue to study the microbiome gut-brain axis. Besides working on multi-omics analyses, he enjoys horror stories, tabletop games and spending time with his wife, son, and corgi. His website can be found at: https://thomazbastiaanssen.github.io/ | |||
| Episode 33: From probiotic mechanisms to applications, with Prof. Graciela Lorca PhD | 17 Feb 2024 | 00:25:17 | |
This episode, we discuss how to advance from probiotic mechanisms to human applications, with Prof. Graciela Lorca PhD at the University of Florida in Gainesville, USA. Prof. Lorca talks about her experiences seeking out the mechanisms of action of a probiotic – including which molecules from bacteria may have beneficial effects – and bringing a probiotic through drug trials for use in Type 1 diabetes. They also discuss probiotic responders versus nonresponders and how dietary intake may provide clues about who will respond to an intervention. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Prof. Graciela Lorca PhD: Dr. Graciela Lorca is currently a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida. She completed her Licentiate in Genetics studies at the National University of Misiones and later received her doctoral degree in Food Technology at the National University of Tucuman in Argentina. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of California San Diego in Molecular Microbiology and at the University of Toronto in Structural Biology and Gene Regulation. Since joining the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida in 2007, Dr. Lorca has focused on the identification of environmental signals that modulate host-microbe interactions. Using multiomic approaches, her laboratory is investigating the bacterial components such as extracellular vesicles that target host pathways involved on those beneficial interactions in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, Dr. Lorca’s laboratory is currently conducting human trials to evaluate the use of Lactobacillus johnsonii Type 1 Diabetes patients. Dr. Lorca currently teaches a graduate and undergraduate level Probiotics course. She is also in charge of the new concentration on Microbiome in health and disease within the Online Master program at Department of Microbiology and Cell Science. | |||
| Episode 32: How microbes and mucus interact in the gut | 06 Dec 2023 | 00:27:50 | |
How microbes and mucus interact in the gut, With Dr. Mindy Engevik PhD
Episode summary: In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss mucus-microbe interactions in the digestive tract with Dr. Mindy Engevik PhD from the Medical University of South Carolina, USA. They discuss how mucus in the gut is produced and degraded, and different ways that pathogens and commensal microbes interact with the mucus layer. Dr. Engevik describes some different ways that commensal bacteria make use of mucus, as well as dietary influences on gut mucus production. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Dr. Mindy Engevik PhD: Mindy Engevik is an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. She has Ph.D. in Systems Biology & Physiology and an interest in microbe-epithelial interactions in the gastrointestinal tract. Her lab focuses on how commensal friendly bacteria in the human gut interact with intestinal mucus and she tries to leverage this information to treat intestinal disorders. You can follow her on Twitter at @micromindy. | |||
| Episode 31: Microbial species and strains: What’s in a name? | 08 Nov 2023 | 00:26:38 | |
Microbial species and strains: What’s in a name? with Dr. Jordan Bisanz PhD
Episode summary: In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts speak with Dr. Jordan Bisanz PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University in State College, USA. They discuss how to define a bacterial strain, the diversity of strains within a species, and how genetic differences correspond with functional differences. They also talk about manipulating microbial communities for insights about health and disease. Key topics from this episode:
Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Jordan Bisanz PhD: Jordan Bisanz is an assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Pennsylvania State University and the One Health Microbiome Center. The Bisanz lab combines computational analyses and wet lab experimentation to understand how gut microbes interact with each other and their host. The lab specializes in coupling human intervention studies with multi ‘omics approaches and gnotobiotic models to understand how host-microbe interactions shape health generating both mechanistic insights and translational targets. | |||
| Episode 30: A systems biology perspective on the gut microbiome | 20 Oct 2023 | 00:26:41 | |
A systems biology perspective on the gut microbiome, with Dr. Sean Gibbons PhD
Episode summary: In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss the microbiome and systems biology with Dr. Sean Gibbons PhD, Associate Professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, USA. Prof. Gibbons talks about exploring and manipulating the complex ecology of the microbiome with the aim of engineering outputs of this system. He describes the utility of artificial intelligence in microbiome science and how the microbiome will play a role in personalized medicine in the future, including in the delivery of probiotics and prebiotics. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Dr. Sean Gibbons PhD: Sean Gibbons earned his PhD in biophysics from the University of Chicago in 2015. He completed his postdoctoral work at MIT in 2018. Sean is now an associate professor at the Institute for Systems Biology, in Seattle. His lab studies the ecology and evolution of microbial communities. In particular, Sean is interested in how host-associated bacterial communities influence the health and wellness of the host organism. His group designs computational and wet-lab tools for studying these complex systems. Ultimately, the Gibbons Lab aims to develop strategies for engineering the ecology of the gut microbiome to improve human health. | |||
| Episode 29: Human milk oligosaccharides in the infant gut | 25 Oct 2023 | 00:21:42 | |
Human milk oligosaccharides in the infant gut, with Dr. Simone Renwick PhD
Episode summary:
In this episode, the ISAPP hosts discuss human milk and the infant gut with Dr. Simone Renwick PhD from Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (MOMI CORE) at UC San Diego, USA. Dr. Renwick talks about her work investigating how communities of microbes versus individual microbes in the infant gut metabolize human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) structures, and what we know about the origin and functions of the microbes contained in human milk. Key topics from this episode:
Dr. Simone Renwick is the Milk & Microbes postdoctoral fellow at the Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence (MOMI CORE) at the University of California, San Diego, USA. Her research focuses on understanding the role of human milk components, such as the human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and milk microbiota, in fostering the developing infant gut microbiota. She is also interested in the potential therapeutic applications of milk components in diseases that affect adults. Currently, Simone is supervised by Drs. Lars Bode, Rob Knight, Pieter Dorrestein, and Jack Gilbert. Prior to her postdoc, Simone completed her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) at the University of Guelph, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Emma Allen-Vercoe. She was the recipient of the Students and Fellows Association poster prize at the ISAPP 2023 meeting in Sitges, Spain. | |||
| Archive Highlight: Microbes that break down mucus and milk to benefit the host, with Dr. Clara Belzer PhD | 10 Jul 2025 | 00:28:40 | |
We discuss microbes, mucus, and milk with Dr. Clara Belzer PhD from Wageningen University in the Netherlands in this episode. Dr. Belzer, a molecular geneticist, specializes in studying the microorganisms that are equipped to break down the glycans in mucus and human milk within the host environment. Key topics from this episode:
Episode abbreviations and links:
About Dr. Clara Belzer PhD: Dr. Clara Belzer is Associate Professor Microbiology at the Laboratory of Microbiology of Wageningen University. The Belzer group is called ‘Microbes Mucus and Milk’ and the research is focused on the interaction of the gut microbiome with host mucus and milk. After obtaining her PhD at the Erasmus Medical Center Dr. Belzer did a postdoc at Harvard medical school. By now Dr. Belzer has years of experience on gut microbiome studies on anaerobes, including synthetic communities and different biotic concepts, with a special interest for the Akkermansia muciniphila. The group of Dr. Belzer works on several microbiome HMO and mucus related topics funded by national and international grants, some also in collaboration with medical centers and industry. Sign up for our monthly newsletter Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads | |||
| Episode 28: Lactobacilli in the microbiomes of the gut, skin, reproductive tract and more | 22 Sep 2023 | 00:22:03 | |
Lactobacilli in the microbiomes of the gut, skin, reproductive tract and more, with Prof. Kingsley Anukam PhD
Episode summary:
In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts cover a range of topics related to lactobacilli and health with Prof. Kingsley Anukam PhD from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria. Prof. Anukam has a special interest in lactobacilli, and studies lactobacilli in microbiomes across many different contexts: fermented foods, skin, gut, and reproductive tract sites. He talks about the wide range of research he has led in Nigeria using diverse sources of funding. Key topics from this episode:
Kingsley C Anukam is a research scientist in human microbiome and biotherapeutics with over 20 years experience. He shares his time between Canada and Nigeria as an adjunct professor at Nnamdi Azikiwe University where he assists in the training and supervision of post graduate students working in the area of probiotics, fermented foods, human microbiome, infectious diseases, laboratory diagnostics, human genomics and forensic DNA analysis. He had his graduate education in Nigeria and post doctorate training in Dr. Gregor Reid’s Lab at Lawson Health Research Institute and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Western University, Canada. He is the first from Africa to show that vaginal microbiome of healthy Nigerian women is similar to women from other populations irrespective of geographical location. He has sequenced and annotated the full genome of over 10 Lactobacillus species of African origin mainly from the reproductive tract and African fermented foods in collaboration with Prof. Sarah Lebeer. He played a significant role in the formation of the DORA project, an ISALA-inspired citizen science for vaginal health in Nigeria. He has over 80 scientific research publications in peer-reviewed journals and listed among first 10 most cited researcher at Nnamdi Azikiwe University by Google Scholar. He is currently the Chief Editor, Journal of Medical Laboratory Science, and a peer-reviewer of several international journals. | |||
| Episode 27: Investigating the benefits of live dietary microbes | 08 Sep 2023 | 00:28:01 | |
In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts themselves are the experts: Prof. Colin Hill PhD from APC Microbiome Ireland / University College Cork and Prof. Dan Tancredi PhD from University of California – Davis talk about their recent work investigating the health benefits from consuming higher quantities of live dietary microbes – and not just microbes that meet the probiotic criteria. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Prof. Colin Hill PhD: About Prof. Dan Tancredi PhD: | |||
| Episode 26: The role of microbes in gut-brain communication | 02 Aug 2023 | 00:27:24 | |
The role of microbes in gut-brain communication, with Prof. Emeran Mayer MD
Episode summary:
In this episode, ISAPP podcast host Prof. Dan Tancredi PhD welcomes guest Prof. Emeran Mayer MD, a gastroenterologist and researcher at University of California Los Angeles. They talk about the microbiota-gut-brain axis, covering its evolutionary origins and how this complex system works in the human body to support overall health. Key topics from this episode:
Emeran A Mayer is a Gastroenterologist, Neuroscientist and Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience and Founding Director of the Goodman Luskin Microbiome Center at UCLA. He is one of the pioneers and leading researchers in the bidirectional communication within the brain gut microbiome system with wide-ranging applications in intestinal and brain disorders. He has published 415 scientific papers, co edited 3 books and has an h-index of 125. He published the best selling books The Mind Gut Connection in 2016, the Gut Immune Connection in June 2021, and the recipe book Interconnected Plates in 2023. He is currently working on a MasterClass and a PBS documentary about the mind gut immune connection. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 David McLean award from the American Psychosomatic Society and the 2017 Ismar Boas Medal from the German Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Disease. | |||
| Episode 25: The effects of metabolites in the colon | 19 Jul 2023 | 00:25:43 | |
The effects of metabolites in the colon, with Prof. Kristin Verbeke PhD
Episode summary: In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts talk about colonic metabolites with Prof. Kristin Verbeke PhD, from KU Leuven, Belgium. She talks about characterizing microbial metabolism in the colon and the consequences of producing various metabolites, both beneficial ones (such as short-chain fatty acids) and potentially detrimental ones. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Prof. Kristin Verbeke PhD: Kristin Verbeke graduated from the KU Leuven, Belgium as a pharmacist in 1991. She obtained a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Laboratory of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry in 1995 and subsequently spend a postdoctoral period in developing radioactively labelled compounds. In 2002, she was appointed at the department of gastroenterology of the Medical Faculty of the Leuven University where she got involved in the use of stable isotope labelled compounds to evaluate gastrointestinal functions. Within the University Hospitals Leuven, she is responsible for the clinical application of diagnostic 13C- and H2-breath tests. Her current research interest specifically addresses the microbial bacterial metabolism in the human colon. Her team has developed several analytical techniques based on mass spectrometry and stable isotope or radioisotope technologies to evaluate several aspects of intestinal metabolism and function in humans (transit time, intestinal permeability, carbohydrate fermentation, protein fermentation, metabolome analysis). Collaborative research has allowed showing an aberrant bacterial metabolism in patient groups with end stage renal failure, inflammatory bowel diseases, irritable bowel disorders and alcohol abuse. These collaborations all have resulted in high quality peer-reviewed papers. In addition, she showed the impact of dietary interventions (modulation of macronutrient composition, pre- or probiotic interventions) on the microbial metabolism and its impact on health. As a PI, she acquired grant support from the university and different funding bodies and successfully completed these projects. Similarly, she supervised several PhD projects that all resulted in the achievement of a PhD degree. Her research resulted in over 200 full research papers. Together with colleague Prof. J. Delcour, she was the beneficiary of the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Cereal Sciences and Nutrition (2010-2020). She is the president of the Belgian Nutrition Society, the vice-chair of the Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Center, and the co-chair of the Prebiotic task force at ILSI Europe. Furthermore, Kristin Verbeke is the editor of the journal Gut Microbiome and member of the editorial board of Gastrointestinal Disorders. Kristin joined the ISAPP Board of Directors in 2023. | |||
| Episode 24: Reflections on the probiotic field and ISAPP’s role | 19 Jul 2023 | 00:28:37 | |
In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts talk about how the probiotic field has evolved over the past 20 years with Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders PhD, ISAPP’s outgoing executive director. She describes how ISAPP is a unique organization advancing the science in the field, highlights what she has enjoyed about being a part of the ISAPP community, and looks ahead to the future of the field. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders PhD: Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD has served in several roles within ISAPP. She was the founding president, executive science officer and executive director and has retired from ISAPP as of June 30, 2023. She is also a consultant in the area of probiotic microbiology. She works internationally with food and supplement companies to develop new probiotic products and offers perspective on paths to scientific substantiation of probiotic product label claims. She is the current chair of the United States Pharmacopeia’s Probiotics Expert Panel, was a member of the working group convened by the FAO/WHO that developed guidelines for probiotics and serves on the World Gastroenterology Organisation Guidelines Committee preparing practice guidelines for the use of probiotics and prebiotics for gastroenterologists. | |||
| Episode 23: Studying microbial ecosystems and how they support health | 19 Jul 2023 | 00:27:04 | |
Studying microbial ecosystems and how they support health, with Prof. Emma Allen-Vercoe PhD
Episode summary: In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts talk about microbial ecosystems with Prof. Emma Allen-Vercoe PhD from the University of Guelph in Canada. Prof. Allen-Vercoe describes how her lab brings together information from microbial sequencing and culturing to learn about the human gut microbiome and how it supports health. She discusses what we know about the industrialized gut microbiome and possible ways to improve health by manipulating it. Key topics from this episode:
Episode links:
About Prof. Emma Allen-Vercoe PhD: Emma obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of London, and her PhD in Molecular Microbiology through an industrial partnership with Public Health England. Emma started her faculty career at the University of Calgary in 2005, with a Fellow-to-Faculty transition award through CAG/AstraZeneca and CIHR, to study the normal microbes of the human gut. In particular, she was among the few that focused on trying to culture these ‘unculturable’ microbes in order to better understand their biology. To do this, she developed a model gut system to emulate the conditions of the human gut and allow communities of microbes to grow together, as they do naturally. Emma moved her lab to the University of Guelph in late 2007, and has been a recipient of several Canadian Foundation for Innovation Awards that has allowed her to develop her specialist anaerobic fermentation laboratory further. This has been recently boosted by the award of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions. In 2013, Emma co-founded NuBiyota, a research spin-off company that aims to create therapeutic ecosystems as biologic drugs, on a commercial scale. The research enterprise for this company is also based in Guelph. | |||