Understanding the Relationship Between the Molecular Structure and the Effects of Prebiotic Compounds on Microbiota and its Metabolites

Background and Objectives
Prebiotic compounds display great variability and so far, there is no clear conclusion about the relationship between structure-function.

The activity generally considers fermentable carbohydrates (prebiotics, candidate prebiotics and oligosaccharides) to:

• determine the relationship between specific structure characteristics of fermentable carbohydrates and the impact on the composition and activity of the gut microbiota;
• investigate the metabolic capacity of human gut microbiota and
• consider potential direct effects of the fermentable carbohydrates on the host (without being fermented first) as a secondary objective.

Output
The outcome from this activity, in the form of a peer- reviewed paper, will support the understanding of how carbohydrate bioengineering tools to manufacture next generation prebiotics can be reasonably applied.