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 […]
By Dr. Gabriel Vinderola, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering from the National University of Litoral and Principal Researcher from CONICET at the Dairy Products Institute (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina. Since very early in my career I was drawn to science communication. I feel that rather than just producing my […]
By Kelly S. Swanson, PhD, The Kraft Heinz Company Endowed Professor in Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Horses play a special role in many people’s lives, serving as a partner in leisure activities, therapy, various forms of work, and athletic competitions. Being large herbivores, they are adapted to a diet rich in […]
By Dr. Anisha Wijeyesekera, University of Reading, UK Much literature relating to the gut microbiota has focused on microbial composition (for example, using culture-dependent and -independent molecular biology approaches). Composition is important; knowing which microbes are present in a community enables us to gain insight into population dynamics and how these may be affected by […]
By Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders, ISAPP Executive Science Officer An exciting research initiative at the crossroads of fermented foods and sustainable diets is underway. Funded by the EU and Switzerland, and coordinated by KU Leuven in Belgium, HealthFerm is a 4-year, 13.1 MM € project involving 23 partners from 10 countries. Prof. Christophe Courtin, KU […]
The board of directors of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) is pleased to announce the appointment of ISAPP’s next Executive Director (ED), Marla Cunningham of Brisbane, Australia. Cunningham will assume leadership of the organization April 1, 2023. ISAPP’s current ED, Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders, will stay on as Executive Science Officer […]
ISAPP is pleased to announce the winner of the 2023 Glenn Gibson Early Career Researcher Prize: Paul Gill, PhD, Research Fellow at University College London, UK. Paul’s work investigates links between diet and the immune system – in particular, how short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) affect immunity in healthy individuals. His research found that fermented foods […]
Kristina Campbell, MSc, and Prof. Dan Tancredi, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, UC Davis School of Medicine and Center for Healthcare Policy and Research Twenty years ago, in 2002, the first ISAPP meeting was held in London, Canada. At the time, the field was much less developed: only small human trials on probiotics or prebiotics had […]
By Dr. Gabriel Vinderola, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering from the National University of Litoral and Principal Researcher from CONICET at the Dairy Products Institute (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina. A panel debate titled “Postbiotics, definition and scopes” was convened at the 9th Beneficial Microbes conference in Amsterdam on November […]
Human milk is the ‘gold standard’ of infant nutrition—and some scientists have set their sights on working towards that standard to improve the health of infants who are not breastfed. Among the many important components of human milk are human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs): complex carbohydrates that are 3-32 sugars in length. Over 200 different HMO […]
The Science, Microbes & Health Podcast This podcast covers emerging topics and challenges in the science of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and fermented foods. This is the podcast of The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotic (ISAPP), a nonprofit scientific organization dedicated to advancing the science of these fields. Evidence on probiotics for preterm […]
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By Prof. Seppo Salminen, University of Turku, Finland Gut microbiota researchers have established that microbial exposures in early life can be influential on health later in life. Children who develop asthma in early childhood, for example, have an altered gut microbiota linked with exposure to less diverse microorganisms in their first year. The ‘biodiversity hypothesis’ […]
