Probiotics leader Yakult is hosting an international symposium in Germany next month, to explore recent research on probiotics and its role in immunology and cancer.
Probiotics are thought to regulate the composition and activity of gut flora, although research confirming the link between the bacteria and reduced disease is limited. A recent study has shown that probiotics given to pregnant women and babies around the time of childbirth could protect children from atopic eczema for up to four years. The live bacteria is also thought to relieve symptoms of intestinal diseases, but its role in preventing the development of cancer is perhaps the newest area of research.
Three different themes - Biomarkers; Mechanisms and Interactions; and Immunology - will explore the present status of scientific knowledge on the interrelation between gut flora, the immune system and cancer at the forthcoming conference. The symposium will be accompanied by a poster session.
Around 150 participants are expected to attend the lectures, which will be held in English with simultaneous translation into German. Internationally acclaimed scientists from Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Sweden, will present the results of their most recent research.
Probiotics, Immunology and Cancer takes place from 9-10 October 2003, in Heidelberg, Germany at the Palais Prinz Carl. It is chaired by Professor Beatrice L. Pool-Zobel from Friedrich-Schiller University Jena and Professor Gerhard Rechkemmer from the Technical University Munich.