Aim:

To establish a network of people interested in understanding how the intestinal gut functions as an integrated system to maintain and restore gut health.

Who Attends?

This cluster will be of interest to those involved in:

• Biomedical industries
• Biopharmaceutical companies
• Nutraceutical companies

Rationale:

We combine the practical experience of our industrial members with the fundamental research knowledge of IFR to give new insights into:

• the molecular mechanisms underlying gut health and immune function in relation with the microbiota
• the development of a technology-based toolbox ( imaging, model colon) to assess impact of foodborne pathogens, food allergens, probiotics, dietary compounds on gut function
• the development of intervention strategies to prevent gut-related diseases (pre/probiotics, functional carbohydrates, targeted delivery vehicles).

Skills Base:

We are a multidisciplinary group of scientists aimed at understanding how the intestinal gut functions as an integrated system.

• Gut immunology
• Intestinal epithelial cell biology  
• Glycobiology (carbohydrate analysis, carbohydrate-active enzymes, carbohydrate-protein interactions)
• Epigenetics, cell signalling
• Genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic profiling of complex gut microbial communities
• Molecular microbiology of commensal bacteria (Lactic acid bacteria, Bacteroides, sulphate-reducing bacteria)
• Mathematical modelling
• In vitro colon fermentation
• Gut epithelial stem cell  research
• Animal models of gut diseases (food allergy, inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer; infectious diseases)
• In vivo and ex vivo bioimaging of the gut

Activities:

Scientsits from this programme are contributing to FHN Cluster events of the Plants, Food & Health and Structuring Food for Health Clusters.

Meeting/Event Proceedings:

Cluster Meeting/Event proceedings are available on the secure Members' only area of the FHN Website: fhnetwork.wikispaces.com