Whilst the direct impact of such food and its components on the organism is of prime importance, a
particular focus will also reside on effects on the structure (composition) and function (physiology)
of the organism’s microbiome. The latter changes in ageing organisms, yet remains prone to “tuning”
by nutrition and nutritional components, a fact that is often underestimated. Indeed, nutrition and the
microbiome control each other, i.e. the diet can change the microbiome, which in turn metabolizes
the individual components of the diet. This interplay impacts significantly on the health of the host,
especially in ageing or aged organisms, as recently highlighted by a series of key publications in
Nature. Whilst WP2 will consider the impact of redox active nutritional components on the body’s
biomarkers, WP3 will monitor the changes of the composition and function of the corresponding
microbiome (in a nutshell, WP2 looks primarily in the blood, WP3 in the turd). Additional links arise,
of course, from the metabolic action of the microbiome, which will effect the food components. Hence
isolated microbiomes will be cultured and used to metabolize redox active food components, in
parallel with similar metabolic studies in liver homogenates, in order to identify putative metabolites
from the parent nutritional components.
- Working Group 1 – Network building and management
- Working Group 2 – The impact of nutrition, lifestyle and redox active secondary metabolites on the organism
- Working Group 4 – Intracellular Diagnostics
