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Project description: FiDiPro

FiDiPro Project: Innovations for Intestinal Health

A significant part of our intestinal microbes are released as fecal material, which represents the only non-invasive sampling route to characterize bacterial diversity (who is there) and activity (what are they doing) in our digestive tract. The main objective of this project is to investigate the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of fecal microbes shared by healthy individuals, and use the findings to define a Healthy Intestine.

The information on the composition and function of healthy intestinal microbiota will be further used to benchmark disorders involving the intestinal tract and the brain-gut axis (eg. Irritable Bowel Syndrome), where the composition of the intestinal microbiota is altered. Intentional modification of the intestinal microbiota towards a healthier one is a target also for industrial food and pharma innovations. The industry consortium of the project provides samples from pro- and prebiotic interventions, which are used to study and validate dietary corrections towards a healthy gut. 

Since sample processing, storage, and the method used for to isolate the molecules of interest (nucleid acids, proteins or metabolites) have fundamental effects on further analyses and their reliability on representing the complexity of bacterial ecosystem, considerable effort is given to evaluate and develop optimal protocols. Quantitative PCR and a high-throughput phylogenetic array based on the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene will be used to study the composition and diversity of bacterial populations. Transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics will be utilized in order to generate functional biomarkers reflecting intestinal health and activity. A variety of biostatistics and bioinformatics tools are needed to analyze and interpret the data of the complex post-genomics profiles. Multivariate methods are used to give an overview of the system-wide changes of microbial populations.

This TEKES project is part of the Distinguished Professor Programme (FiDiPro)

 

Project Members

Willem M. de Vos, professor
Airi Palva, professor
Anne Salonen, PhD
Jarkko Salojärvi, PhD (Bioinformatics)
Reetta Satokari, PhD
Jonna Jalanka-Tuovinen, MSc
Carolin Kolmeder, MSc
Lotta Jalonen, MSc (Turku University)
Outi Immonen, laboratory analyst

Academic Collaborators

University of Turku Seppo Salminen, professor

University of Wageningen Willem M. de Vos, professor Erwin Zoetendal, PhD Mirjana Rajilic-Stojanovic, PhD Jacques Vervoort, PhD, group leader Peter Schaap, PhD

 

Industrial Collaborators

Carlsberg Filial I Finland/Sinebrychoff Oy, Danisco Finland Oy, Fazer Bakeries Ltd.,                      Ipsat Therapies Oy, Orion Oyj, Valio R&D and The Finnish Red Cross Blood Service.

Selected reading

Salonen A., Palva A., de Vos W.M. 2008. Microbial Functionality in the Human Intestinal Tract. Submitted to Frontiers in Biosciences.   
 
Rajilić-Stojanović M., Smidt H., de Vos W.M. 2007. Diversity of the human gastrointestinal tract microbiota revisited. Environmental Microbiology 9(9): 2125- 2136.

Klaassens ES, de Vos W.M., Vaughan E.E. (2007): Metaproteomics approach to study the functionality of the microbiota in the human infant gastrointestinal tract. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73:1388-1392