The program, includes presentations by Dr. Peter Trunbaugh, PhD of the University of California San Francisco; Matt Oster, Consumer Health Industry Manager at Euromonitor; Dr. Dan Merenstein, MD of Georgetown University; Jeff Leach, co-founder of America Gut and founder of the Human Food Project; Dr. Chris Callewaert, PhD of the University of California San Diego; and D.r Nicklas Larsson, Research Director at Probi.
Among the new avenues of research that will be explored is Leach’s work in mapping the gut microbiomes of indigenous African populations. Leach is the founder of American Gut, the world’s largest, open-source microbiome project.
The effort is based out of the lab of renowned microbiome expert Rob Knight, PhD at the University of California San Diego. The Knight lab is one of the largest microbiome research labs in the world, processing samples from hundreds of projects at a rate of nearly 1,000 per week. According to the American Gut organization, the protocols used by the lab to process these samples have been extensively tested and benchmarked, bolstering the scientific validity of the statistical conclusions drawn from microbiome population comparisons.
Leach spent several years in East Africa, comparing the gut microbiomes of different populations of the Hazda people of Tanzania. Many of the Hazda have switched to a more or less modern diet of agricultural commodities, but a small subset continue to consume a diet composed of mostly foraged foods. Leach will tell event attendees what’s he’s learned about what those gut population maps say about modern diets and gut health.
Beyond the gut
Dr. Callewaert, who is also part of Knight’s group at UCSD, will outline a recent study he did on using ‘good’ microbes to supplant odor-causing ones in treating underarm odor. He has also published a review paper this year with Knight that describes “how new generations of sequencing technology, analytical advances coupled to new software capabilities, and the integration of animal model data have led to these new discoveries. We also discuss the prospects for integrating studies of the microbiome, metabolome, and immune system, with the goal of elucidating mechanisms that govern their interactions. This systems-level understanding will change how we think about ourselves as organisms.”
“Our joint event is bridging the gap between scientific discovery and commercial application in the fastest developing ingredient sectors for both food and supplements,”said George Paraskevakos, executive director of the International Probiotics Association.
The 2017 IPA World Congress + Probiota Americas will run from June 7 to 9 in San Francisco and will feature a plenary conference and a high level networking program as well as deep-dive workshops into high profile areas, including prebiotic ingredients and the gut-brain axis.
For more information or to register, click here.