Nutricia And GIS Collaborate On Gut Bacteria Project

Nutricia will conduct clinical trials while GIS provides the genomic analysis to better understand the interactions between nutrition and gut bacteria.

AsianScientist (Mar. 26, 2014) – A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and Nutricia Research have joined forces to investigate the impact of nutrition on gut bacteria and host health.

Under the three-year research collaboration agreement, GIS’ microbial genomics team and the Nutricia Research Early Life Nutrition team will seek to understand the effects of nutrition on the development of intestinal microorganisms or ‘gut microbiome’. These are microbes that exist in harmony with the human host; the composition of which can have an impact on health. It is known that gut microorganisms perform processes that aid digestion, synthesize vitamins, and create essential enzymes not produced by the human body.

Prof Huck Hui Ng, Executive Director at the GIS, said, “Microbiome research is an exciting frontier and it leverages on GIS’s core capability to analyze and study the complex community of microbes.”

Researchers want to investigate how nutrition supports microbiome in early life, can help prevent disease later in life. The Nutricia Research team will be conducting two nutritional clinical studies, while the GIS team will provide state-of-the-art genomic analyses to better understand the complex microbial communities in study populations.

Prof Martin Hibberd, Senior Group Leader for the GIS microbial groupings, said, “This collaboration will allow us to use our expanding expertise in metagenomics to develop a molecular understanding of any benefits associated with healthy microbes.”

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Source: A*STAR; Photo: brian.gratwick/Flickr/CC.

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