Description
Project manager: Duccio Cavalieri
Host institution: Fondazione E. Mach
Duration: 01/12/2012 to 30/11/2014
Total costs borne by PAT: € 200,000.00
Scientific or technological area: Agro-food
Subjects involved:
- FEM-CRI Coordinator
Scientific responsible: Duccio Cavalieri
Contributors: Anja Zimmermann, Alessandro Cestaro, Tobias Weil, Fulvio Mattivi, Kieran Tuohy, Carlotta De Filippo, Claudio Donati. - FBK Partners
Scientific Responsible: Cesare Furlanello - CIBIO-UNITN Partner
Scientific responsible: Olivier Jousson
Contributors: Olivier Jousson, Nicola Segata - UO Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition, APSS: Partner
Scientific responsible: Carlo Pedrolli - UNIFARM: Partner
Scientific responsible: Paolo Zanini
Project objectives
METAFOODLABS is an initiative dedicated to the study of the interaction between the immune system, environmental and intestinal microorganisms and diet. Its aim is to find possible indications on the flow of microorganisms from the environment to man and the treatment, with support for the Trentino care structures, of patients with inflammation-based diseases, an increasing incidence in the globalised world, both in terms of impact on the population and in terms of therapeutic costs and quality of life. It also aims to enable the development of innovative research on the role of traditional fermented foods as a source of probiotic microorganisms useful for maintaining a healthy immune system, exploring the possibility of characterising microorganisms present in typical Trentino-Alto Adige products for the industrial development of new functional foods. The expected results of the research have been published or are being published in international scientific journals.
State of the art and solutions to the problem/solutions existing prior to the project, and improvements introduced by the project
There is a growing interest in using diet as a new way of doing personalised medicine by acting on what is called the gut-environment connection (nutrition, microbiota). Understanding this association means providing a new tool for diet-based therapies. The metagenomic approach makes it possible to link the structure and functioning of microbial communities associated with host health allowing the development of new preventive probiotics and prebiotics aimed at maintaining health.
Work organisation:
The work team involved the interdisciplinary contribution of FEM, FBK, CIBIO, APSS, UNIFARM personnel.
We integrated metagenomics analyses using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and classical microbiology were combined with immunological and bioinformatic tests.
Thanks to a financial co-participation of Unifarm, a joint research doctorate was activated with Cibio (2013-2016) (Prof. Jusson). New companies in Trentino, such as miRNA green, have expressed interest in using the created infrastructure.
Results achieved:
- An infrastructure was built for the evaluation of pro- and anti-inflammatory properties of microbial communities.
- We discovered the interaction between yeasts and bacteria in Vino Santo associated with the typicality of the product
- We evaluated the effects of different dietary regimes on the composition of the gut microbiota in children with Crohn's disease
- We discovered how yeasts and bacteria and an altered Gut-Brain Axis cause chronic inflammatory and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Impact:
Future applications are the development of new therapeutic approaches, based on fermented foods and beneficial microorganisms. The use of the realised infrastructure will allow the systematic evaluation of the immunomodulatory quality of the food-microorganism interaction, contributing to the knowledge of the possible benefits of typical food products, linked to the biological relationship with the territory, enhancing the local Trentino supply chains related to fermentation processes.
Keywords: microorganisms-environment interaction, diet, microorganisms-host interaction, metagenomics, probiotics, typicality