Bacterial Impact on Gut Metabolomics

The complex ecosystem of microbes inhabiting the human gut plays an important role for human health. An increasing number of publications show that the composition and activity of our intestinal microbiota affects a number of so-called lifestyle diseases including allergy, obesity, colorectal cancer, and susceptibility to intestinal infections.

Additionally, it has become evident that the intestinal microbiota can be modulated by intake of probiotic bacteria or prebiotic carbohydrates. Recently developed approaches allow simultaneous mapping of multiple bacterial metabolites present in gut contents.

Our intention is to use these stage-of-the-art approaches to elucidate the impact of selected bacteria and carbohydrates, which will be supplied by dietary interventions, on the intestinal metabolome. For this purpose, we will use gnotobiotic animal models, which allow establishment of a simple, well-defined intestinal microbiota.