That’s the place ProDigest comes into the image. Based in 2008, the Belgium-based analysis agency works with firms globally to check options in “robotic guts” to fight the weight problems epidemic whereas addressing human variability.
Through the use of expertise to simulate human gastrointestinal environments for analysis and product testing coupled with superior analytical strategies, it will probably assess completely different microbiome compositions and outcomes previous to additional examine and product improvement.
“As an example, working with metabolomics, we’re in a position to perceive which metabolites are produced by the microbiota on the stage of the colon and join this to a systemic impact for the host, and what could possibly be the potential impact by way of satiety, weight administration and affect on weight problems on the very finish,” mentioned Massimo Marzorati, PhD, CEO at ProDigest.
One space of accelerating curiosity in weight administration is the usage of prebiotics, which may selectively feed helpful intestine micro organism to metabolites like short-chain fatty acids that will affect weight-regulating hormones, urge for food, and irritation.
Clarifying the structure-function relationship of prebiotics is essential to figuring out which candidates ought to be prioritized for future analysis.
“At ProDigest, for instance, our Colon-on-a-plate expertise coupled with our biobank is a perfect software to review such structure-function relationships,” mentioned Dr. Bart Roucourt, PhD, director of enterprise improvement at ProDigest.
“What can be very attention-grabbing and related is that the prebiotic just isn’t the identical for each particular person—so completely different people will reply in a different way to the prebiotic. In that case, with our Colon-on-a-plate strategy coupled with the biobank, we are able to ship solutions on the inter-individual variability of the response in direction of prebiotics and actually perceive how they’ll carry out in a while when utilized in actual life.”
Colon-on-a-plate is a excessive throughput simulation expertise that may mannequin completely different donor microbiomes and insights into how an intervention impacts microbiome composition, metabolism and interplay with host cells. It makes use of small-volume reactors that may be inoculated with the microbial communities derived from human fecal samples. Researchers can check 20, 30 or 40 topics inside the identical experiments to discover the affect of an ingredient and completely different sort of microbiota.
The software that receives probably the most consideration at ProDigest is SHIME, or Simulator of Human Intestinal Microbial ecosystem, a bench-sized laboratory mannequin of the human intestine that Dr. Marzorati fine-tuned 17 years in the past whereas he was a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent College.
To raised perceive how prebiotics can mediate weight administration, a clinically validated mannequin like SHIME might be fed a product to review formulations and doses, deriving knowledge that may point out mechanisms of motion that will affect weight administration. Efficient formulations and doses can result in higher weight administration outcomes.
“We’ve got completely different expertise platforms, and every expertise platform has its personal distinctive objective,” Dr. Roucourt mentioned. “And based mostly on the analysis query of the consumer, we advise the consumer which is the perfect expertise for his or her analysis query.”
ProDigest notes that there’s nonetheless a lot to be explored by way of inter-individual variability, given the trillions of micro organism consistently interacting and competing inside the microbiome..
“It’s a area of analysis which may be very attention-grabbing but additionally within the early section,” Dr. Marzorati mentioned.
