By Marla Cunningham, ISAPP Executive Director The use of probiotics in premature infants has been highly topical in recent months. Probiotic use for the prevention of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants has been studied in over 65 randomised clinical trials, with systematic reviews showing significant reductions in NEC as well as all cause mortality. […]
By Prof. Daniel Merenstein MD and Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders PhD During the ISAPP 2024 meeting, an article titled, “Is there evidence to support probiotic use for healthy people?” was published. The authors concluded, “…we did not find a high level of evidence to support recommendations for other endpoints we reviewed for healthy people. Although […]
By Prof. Kristin Verbeke PhD, KU Leuven Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), primarily acetate, propionate and butyrate, are the most abundant anions in the large intestine. They are mainly produced from bacterial fermentation of undigested carbohydrates. Since SCFA were found to activate the orphan G-protein coupled receptors GPR-41 and 43 (renamed as free fatty acid receptor […]
With increasing age and frailty come changes in the gut microbiota – leading scientists to ask whether targeting the gut microbiota using prebiotics could contribute to healthier aging. Of particular interest is whether prebiotics have the potential to affect brain health and cognitive performance in older adults. An intervention study led by researchers at King’s […]
By Prof. Colin Hill PhD DSc, University College Cork, Ireland ISAPP has provided consensus definitions for a number of biotics that confer a health benefit on the host. These include prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics and postbiotics, but here I want to put forward an argument that bacteriophages (phages) could qualify as a new member of the […]
By Prof. Seppo Salminen PhD, University of Turku, Finland When pigs are kept as livestock, ‘manipulative behaviour’ is relatively common and it most often consists of biting, touching, or close contact with ears or tails of pen mates, without always resulting in visible wounds. Such pig behavior can cause stress and sometimes results in physical […]
Fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi, and fermented pickles have traditionally been associated with health benefits in countries around the world, but the science that backs these health benefits is relatively new. Amidst a growing number of scientific studies examining the health benefits of specific fermented foods, a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcement […]
ISAPP’s board of directors is happy to announce the 2024 winner of the Gregor Reid Award for Outstanding Scholars in Developing Nations: Dr. Rounak Chourasia PhD, a research associate at the National Agri-food Biotechnology Institute in Mohali, Punjab (India). Dr. Chourasia’s work focuses on discovering microorganisms with specific properties that contribute to the enhanced health […]
The ISAPP selection committee for the Glenn Gibson Early Career Researcher Award is pleased to announce that Dr. Boushra Dalile PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven (Belgium), is the recipient of this year’s award. Dr. Dalile is a researcher who moved from studying psychology and cognitive neuroscience into biomedical sciences, completing her PhD in […]
The ISAPP board of directors is pleased to share that the winner of the inaugural Sanders Award for Advancing Biotic Science is Dr. Maria Pía Taranto PhD, a researcher at the Center of Reference for Lactobacilli at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CERELA-CONICET) in Argentina. Dr. Taranto leads the YOGURITO program, established in […]
By Kristina Campbell, Prof. Colin Hill PhD, Prof. Sarah Lebeer PhD, Prof. Maria Marco PhD, Prof. Dan Merenstein MD, Prof. Hania Szajewska MD PhD, Prof. Dan Tancredi PhD, Prof. Kristin Verbeke PhD, Dr. Gabriel Vinderola PhD, Dr. Anisha Wijeyesekera PhD, and Marla Cunningham Biotic science is an active field, with over 6,600 scientific papers published […]
By Prof. Daniel Tancredi, UC Davis, USA The best evidence for the efficacy of probiotics or prebiotics generally comes from randomized controlled trials. The proper design of such trials should strive to use the available resources to achieve the most informative results for stakeholders, while properly accounting for the consequences of correct and incorrect decisions. […]
Even though the human digestive tract extends from the mouth down through the small and large intestines, the study of probiotics and their activities has tended to focus on the colon. While the colon (or perhaps more accurately its proxy, the faecal sample) is relatively accessible and easy to study, recently some researchers have argued […]
By Prof. Sarah Lebeer PhD, University of Antwerp, Belgium September was an eventful month for me, as I had the privilege of participating in various scientific gatherings. These include co-organizing the 14th Symposium on Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB14) in the Netherlands (LAB symposium), attending the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group workshop (EHMSG) in my […]
By Prof. Dan Merenstein MD, Georgetown University Medical Center, USA In September the New York Times published an article titled “What Obesity Drugs and Antidepressants Have in Common“. It was written by a physician who had personally struggled with weight issues and depression. In his personal journey with these health challenges, he hesitates to undergo […]
Board of Directors, International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics in collaboration with Dr. Geoffrey Preidis MD PhD, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition Prof. Andi L Shane MD MPH MSc, Pediatric Infectious Diseases A recent report of a fatality in an extremely premature infant recipient of a probiotic product has resulted in a warning letter […]
With this year’s retirement of ISAPP’s longtime Executive Science Officer, Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders PhD, the ISAPP board of directors sought a suitable way to honor her contributions in advancing scientific development in the fields of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and fermented foods. Many scientists in these fields have commended Mary Ellen’s leadership, initiative, collaboration, […]
By Prof. Seppo Salminen, University of Turku, Finland One of the major contributors to greenhouse gas production is the final stage of anaerobic fermentation in the rumen (pre-stomach compartment) of cattle, which produces methane. The process is the top agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide. In addition, the formation of methane is associated with approximately […]
By Dr. Gabriel Vinderola PhD, Instituto de Lactología Industrial (CONICET-UNL), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, National University of Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina and and Prof. Colin Hill PhD, School of Microbiology and APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland ISAPP published a definition for the term postbiotics in 2021 that states that “a postbiotic is a […]
By Dr. Gabriel Vinderola PhD, Instituto de Lactología Industrial (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina The publication of a new definition for the term “postbiotics” by ISAPP in 2021 (Salminen et al., 2021a) spurred discussion on a variety of platforms, including scientific journals, social media and in-person debates organized at industry and scientific meetings. A couple of […]
By Prof. Maria Marco PhD, University of California – Davis Probiotics and prebiotics are frequently marketed to consumers for their capacity to improve or support gut health. Dietitian nutritionists responding to a survey ranked fermented foods as the top superfood for the past six years explaining gut health as a primary reason for their choice. […]
By Dr. Paul Gill PhD, Monash University Fermented foods have grown in popularity in recent years, marketed for their purported health effects, including on the gut microbiome and immune system. Many of us have had a family member or friend recommend to us kombucha or sauerkraut based on a claim of curing their ailments. However, […]
By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, Executive Science Officer, ISAPP The use of probiotics and prebiotics in the practice of gastroenterology must be guided by evidence – and with new evidence continually emerging, clinicians can benefit from efforts to summarize this evidence and determine how it applies in clinical practice. In February 2023, the World Gastroenterology […]
Innovation in the biotics field is an important way to address some of our most important challenges in health, and ISAPP is the organization on the forefront of this innovation. This year ISAPP members are excited to debut a new workshop focused on innovation, June 26th at the 2023 ISAPP annual meeting in Denver. For […]
By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, Executive Science Officer, ISAPP Encountering misinformation is all too easy when seeking understanding of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics (collectively, ‘biotics’). It can be perpetuated both by proponents and detractors. Through this lens, I’m prompted to comment on some high profile pieces making news recently. A Washington Post article Probiotic […]
