Task Force Information
Objectives
Consumers, the scientific community, regulators and the food and dietary supplement industry show increasing interest in probiotics and their health benefits. The attention of the task force is thus focused on the understanding of the role of probiotics in health and disease, their mechanisms of action while increasing awareness of their direct/indirect benefits on health.
Task Force Members
| Arthur Ouwehand – Chair | International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) | R&D Group Manager | FI |
| Marc Heyndrickx* – Co-Chair | Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) | Scientific Director | BE |
| Nikoletta Vidra | Yakult Europe | BE | |
| Jonathan Lane | H&H Group | Senior Manager, Global Research | IE |
| Carolien van Loo-Bouwman | Yili Research Center Europe | Managing Director | NL |
| Delphine Saulnier | Novonesis | Science Manager | DE |
| David Perez Pascual | Danone Nutricia Research | Team Leader Culture Collection | FR |
| Daniella Lucena | Arla Amba | Chief Scientist | DE |
| Benjamin Anderschou Holbech Jensen* | University of Copenhagen | Assist. Professor, Head of Nutritional Immunology | DK |
| Soheil Varasteh | DSM-Firmenich | Translational Science Lead | DK |
| Vicenta Garcia Campayo | Cargill | Principal Scientist | USA |
* Scientific Advisors
Contact Information
For more detailed information, please contact Maria Tonti at mtonti@ilsieurope.be
Activity Overview
Ongoing Activities
- Probiotic Clinical Study Design
The Expert Group will work on recommendations and a decision tree for designing effective probiotic clinical studies. This initiative will bring together experts from academia, industry, and regulatory bodies to enhance research quality by establishing reporting guidelines, streamlining study design, and developing reliable protocols tailored to the unique nature of live microbes.
The activity will involve a workshop on the 3rd of April 2025, at ILSI Europe office in Brussels. More info for the workshop to be announced soon.
Start date: Q4 2024 - End date: Q2 2025
- Markers of the Gut Microbiota
The group aims to identify key markers for assessing microbiota improvement, focusing on measurable indicators of microbiota composition and activity that are relevant to human health. This activity will address the need for standardized markers to evaluate dietary interventions, combining various indicators for comprehensive evaluation. The activity is shared with the Prebiotics Task Force.
Start date: Q1 2025 - End date: Q2 2026
Upcoming Activities
- Postbiotics for early life nutrition
An Expert group on aims to explore the emerging role of postbiotics in infant nutrition through a focused, workshop-style debate involving experts in microbiota, pediatrics, and nutritional science. This initiative will identify key challenges, assess knowledge gaps, and develop recommendations to guide future research and applications. The outcomes will be published to support evidence-based guidance in infant and early childhood health. This is a joint activity with the Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health Task Force.
Start date: Q4 2025 - End date: Q2 2027
Expert Groups
Probiotic Clinical Study Design
Background and Objectives
The aim of this activity is to develop recommendations and a decision tree for designing effective probiotic clinical studies, taking into account the unique characteristics of live microbes. This initiative will gather input from experts in academia, CROs, industry, and regulatory bodies to enhance the quality and outcomes of probiotic research. The objectives include: (1) organizing a consensus workshop to establish proper reporting guidelines, (2) generating a decision tree to streamline study design, and (3) recommending study protocols that ensure control and reliability. The activity will also focus on identifying appropriate study designs for various research purposes and highlighting critical considerations specific to probiotics, including the importance of accurate study reporting.
Output
This activity will result in recommendations/ decision tree to optimize study design, taking into account the unique, live nature of probiotics.
Expert Group Members
| Hania Szajewska | University of Warsaw | PL |
| Adele Costabile | University of Roehampton | UK |
| Marc Benninga | Emma Children’s Hospital, AMC | NL |
| Francisco Guarner | University Hospital Vall d’Hebron | ES |
| Gemma Walton | University of Reading | UK |
| Patricia Sanz Morales | University of Reading | UK |
| Arthur Ouwehand | IFF | FI |
| Jonathan Lane | H&H Group | IE |
| Nikoletta Vidra | Yakult Europe | NL |
| Carolien van Loo-Bouwman | Yili | NL |
Publications
Newest to Oldest
ILSI Europe perspective review: site-specific microbiota changes during pregnancy associated with biological consequences and clinical outcomes: opportunities for probiotic interventions
Gut Microbes, 2025
Small intestine vs. colon ecology and physiology: Why it matters in probiotic administration
Cell Reports Medicine, 2023
We provide a detailed review unfolding how the physiological and anatomical differences between the small and large intestine affect gut microbiota composition, function, and plasticity. This information is key to understanding how gut microbiota manipulation, including probiotic administration, may strain-dependently transform host-microbe interactions at defined locations.
Perspective: Leveraging the Gut Microbiota to Predict Personalized Responses to Dietary, Prebiotic, and Probiotic Interventions
Advances in Nutrition, 2022
Commissioned by the Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.
Dietary Probiotics, Prebiotics and the Gut Microbiota in Human Health
2022
Commissioned by the Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.
The microbiota–gut–brain axis: pathways to better brain health. Perspectives on what we know, what we need to investigate and how to put knowledge into practice
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2022
(2022) 79:80. Commissioned by the Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health, Nutrition and Brain Health, Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation, Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.
- To download the English version, click here.
- To download the Portuguese version, click here.
- To download the French version, click here.
- To download the Spanish version, click here.
- To download the Slovak version, click here.
- To download the Japanese version, click here.
- To download the Chinese version, click here.
Click on the image below to download the one-pager summary.
Commissioned by the Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.
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Nutrition and Brain Health
Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation
Prebiotics
Probiotics
GUT MICROBIOME AND HEALTH and NUTRITION AND CONSUMER SCIENCE
The gut and brain link via various metabolic and signalling pathways, each with the potential to influence mental, brain and cognitive health. Over the past decade, the involvement of the gut microbiota in gut-brain communication has become the focus of increased scientific interest, establishing the microbiota-gut-brain axis as a field of research. There is a growing number of association studies exploring the gut microbiota's possible role in memory, learning, anxiety, stress, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Consequently, attention is now turning to how the microbiota can become the target of nutritional and therapeutic strategies for improved brain health and well-being. However, while such strategies that target the gut microbiota to influence brain health and function are currently under development with varying levels of success, still very little is yet known about the triggers and mechanisms underlying the gut microbiota's apparent influence on cognitive or brain function and most evidence comes from pre-clinical studies rather than well controlled clinical trials/investigations. Filling the knowledge gaps requires establishing a standardised methodology for human studies, including strong guidance for specific focus areas of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, the need for more extensive biological sample analyses, and identification of relevant biomarkers. Other urgent requirements are new advanced models for in vitro and in vivo studies of relevant mechanisms, and a greater focus on omics technologies with supporting bioinformatics resources (training, tools) to efficiently translate study findings, as well as the identification of relevant targets in study populations. The key to building a validated evidence base rely on increasing knowledge sharing and multi-disciplinary collaborations, along with continued public-private funding support. This will allow microbiota-gut-brain axis research to move to its next phase so we can identify realistic opportunities to modulate the microbiota for better brain health.
To download this open-access article, please click here.
This work was conducted in collaboration with the Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health, Nutrition and Brain Health, Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation, Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.
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Pregnancy induces notable alterations in the gut, vaginal, and oral microbiota driven by hormonal,immune, metabolic, dietary, and environmental factors. During pregnancy, the gut microbiota ischaracterized by increased proportions of the genus Bifidobacterium and the phylaPseudomonadota (formerly Proteobacteria) and Actinomycetota (formerly Actinobacteria). Thesechanges occur alongside reduced alpha diversity and greater beta diversity, changes that influencematernal metabolism and fetal development. Shifts in gut and oral microbiota have been asso-ciated with complications such as preterm birth (PTB), pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes(GDM), though patterns are sometimes inconsistent. The vaginal microbiota remains Lactobacillus-dominant during pregnancy, with reduced diversity leading to reduced risk of pathogenic infectionand increased diversity has been linked with a higher risk of PTB. Hormonal changes also affect theoral microbiota, potentially increasing pathogenic species and contributing to adverse outcomeslike PTB. Probiotic supplementation during pregnancy has significant potential to reduce adversepregnancy outcomes; however, clinical studies are still limited. Probiotics may be effective inalleviating maternal constipation and lead to lower PTB risk, particularly by modulating the vaginalmicrobiota, but they have limited impact on GDM. In the context of maternal mental health, somestudies suggest benefits of probiotics in reducing anxiety, but effects on depression are incon-clusive. This perspective examines how pregnancy-related microbial shifts, both natural andprobiotic-induced, affect maternal and fetal health and highlights potential opportunities for theinnovative use of probiotics during the gestation period.
One pager
Read the full paper
This work was commissionned by the Probiotics Task Force
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Completed Expert Groups
Overview of completed activities
- Benefits, challenges, and opportunities with changes in the maternal microbiome before and during pregnancy
- Prediction of individual responses to prebiotics and probiotics intervention (collaboration Prebiotics Task Force)
- Joint nutrition cluster activity on ‘mechanistic insights into the gut-brain axis' in collaboration with Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health; Health Benefit Assessment of Foods; Nutrition, Immunity & Inflammation; Nutrition & Brain Health and Prebiotics Task Forces
- Updated concise monograph - Dietary Probiotics, Prebiotics and the Gut Microbiota in Human Health (collaboration with Probiotics Task Force)
