Julien Tap - Metagenomique et Biotechnologies

Danone Research, Institut Pasteur and INRA organized the 2nd international symposium on Microbes for Health (1st and 2nd of December 2011). This symposium focused on the latest findings in the area of gut microbiota and its role in human health and disease. Different expert in the fiels of Microbial gut ecology, systemic Immunity, metabolism and disease and Neuroscience will present their work in the Auditorium of Institut Pasteur (Paris, France).

This symposium was covered by Twitter users using the hashtag #MFH2011. A friendsfeed group is also available here : http://friendfeed.com/mfh2011.

The Microbes for Health 2011 program is available here : http://www.microbes-for-health.com/scientific-information/program

The discoverers of enterotypes launched a large scale project called my.microbes. Since Sept. 8, the project is open to anyone who wants to contribute. The study aims to analyze, through high throughput technologies and innovative bioinformatics tools, the microbiome of any person in the world. People can help by giving a sample and a donation.

Recording metadata with a questionnaire, the project aims to analyze up to 5,000 samples from individuals with diverses backgrounds. For each participant, the my.microbes team will provide a report with an enterotype analysis and a functional composition of their microbiota. Giving the global context, participant will be encouraged to share anonymously their data with others participants which have the same microbiome profile.

"Acting as both social network and DNA database, the website offers a place for people to share diet tips, stories and gastrointestinal woes with one another..." Natures news (08/09/2010)

• my.microbes website : http://my.microbes.eu/
  
• Nicola Jones. Social network wants to sequence your gut. Nature News. Published online 8 September 2011
• Arumugam, M. et al. Nature Advance online publication http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09944 (2011).
• L. Salters Notre flore intestinal a son réseau social published online 19 sept 2011
  

After the development of a cell reporter system for NF-kB pathway and identification of new potential therapeutic molecule by metagenomic screening, INRA scientists have focused directly on intestinal bacteria isolated in the laboratory. The ability to modulate the NF-kB pathway, central for immune response, was studied for 49 commensal strains.

Interrestingly, according to the cell lines, enterocytes or colonocytes, the modulatory capacity of commensal bacteria was different and was correlated for some of them with the presence of butyrate or propionate, which are known to be energetic for intestinal cells.

"The cell-based screening method employed in the present study provides a rapid identification of potentially interesting commensal species, however their effects require further confirmation and characterization using other techniques of NF-κB detection. Moreover, the potential implication of these commensal bacteria and their host cells regulating properties in human health and disease may need to be evaluated." Lakhdari et al

• Identification of NF-kappaB modulation capabilities within human intestinal commensal bacteria. Omar Lakhdari, Julien Tap, Fabienne Beguet, Karine Le Roux, Tomas de Wouters, Antonietta Cultrone, Malgorzata Nepelska, Fabrice Lefèvre, J. Doré, and Hervé Blottière. Journal of Biomedecine and Biotechnology 2011.