Speaking this morning at the Probiotech conference in Milan, Italy, Dr Michiel Kleerebezem, principal scientist at NIZO Food Research in the Netherlands, said genomic data was filling in crucial gaps about probiotic bacteria activity.
To date, “there was very little about how [effects] were achieved by the intervention you carry out,” Dr Kleerebezem said.
“Both human genomics but also microbial genomics if you talk about probiotics – both of these allow you to have holistic overviews of what happens at the molecular level … so you can make connections, you can build molecular communication models between probiotics and human cells that allow you to explain why this clinical effect is brought about. And that is a mechanism-based health claim.”