Marco Lab

News Archive

Gordon Conference on lactic acid bacteria

You are invited to apply to attend the the first ever Gordon Research Conference on lactic acid bacteria. The meeting will be held in Ventura, CA from July 23-28, 2023. Abstracts are still being accepted. Apply soon because registration is limited! https://www.grc.org/lactic-acid-bacteria-biology-symbioses-and-applications-conference/2023/

GRC on LAB 2023.pdf

New paper on the benefits of friendly microbes in our diets

Our collaborative ISAPP group found that foods with higher microbial concentrations are associated with modest health improvements across a range of outcomes. This paper used NHANES participants’ reported food intake to quantify the food they ate that contained medium or high levels of microbes. Then they determined how these intakes correlated with various markers of health such as blood pressure and weight. We found that increased consumption of live microbes in the diet was linked with multiple measurements of better health: more favorable blood pressure, better blood glucose and insulin, lower inflammation, as well as lower waist circumference and body mass index. This established that those who consumed higher quantities of live dietary microbes showed tangible, if modest, health benefits.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.02.019

New paper on intraspecific diversity of L. plantarum

This published in Applied Environmental Microbiology shows how intraspecies interactions in food fermentations are dependent on metal cation availabilty. We are excited to share these findings because they provide new insight on the ecological interactions and nutritional requirements of microbes in food fermentations which can be used to improve the quality and consistency of those foods.

Glory Bui wins ISAPP SFA poster award

Glory Bui (PhD student MGG) received the honor of a coveted poster award at the annual International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) meeting in Sitges, Spain. The award was given to two students by the Student Fellows Association (SFA). Congratulations to Glory on her excellent research and presentation on diffusible factors made by L. casei in milk which improve intestinal epithelial barrier function.

New project to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance

We are excited to share the news that we are launching a new project to reduce antibiotic use and risk of antimicrobial resistance in pig production. This $21.2 million, 5-year PIG-PARADIGM project is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Our lab is teaming up with other researchers at UC Davis and at universities in Denmark and the Netherlands. We will be studying how to prevent the need for antibiotics during pig weaning by improving digestive tract resilience through the gut microbiome. More information about our plans can be found here and here.

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Dr. Carolina Battistini

Carolina joined Marco Lab in June 2022. She received her Ph.D. in Food Science at the University of São Paulo, and her Master's in Food Engineering at Mauá Institute of Technology. Her research interests are focused on understanding the mechanisms that underlie the health benefits of probiotic fermented foods. She is currently studying the impact of different food matrices (plant-based and dairy) on the viability, gastrointestinal stress resistance, and functional potential of probiotics during the digestion process using a dynamic gastric in vitro model. This past October, she presented her preliminary results at the IMGC - International Milk Genomics Consortium Symposium 2022.

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