What does the microbiome in our gut have to do with entrepreneurship? Everything, when you consider that all those trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites play a key role in our health. Healthy people are the foundation of healthy business, such as in the growing Life Science & Health sector. At the gut health workshop at the NOM Midsummer Festival, two speakers gave an insight into the organ that can make us thrive better.
Gijs Jansen offers brain food
For those who didn't already know: we can eat ourselves alert, energetic and happy, but also gloomy or sluggish. So be aware of what food you put in your mouth and think about what's on offer in company canteens, was the message of Gijs Jansen. He is a microbiologist at NL-Lab in Leeuwarden, which serves practitioners, individuals, athletes and companies with research, information and advice on the gut microbiome, among other things. According to Jansen, knowledge in this area has been "exploding" especially in recent years, which offers prospects for our health.
Thus, understanding the different bacterial groups and their functions helps to address - risks of - diseases, but also to feed in a more targeted way and thus influence moods and performance. There is no standard recipe for this, because everyone's intestines are inhabited by diverse populations of mirco-organisms: more than 1,200 species have already been distinguished in the intestinal microbiome. This army of critters programs our immune system and communicates with all organs in the body. Thus, it is possible that skin and lung diseases are also related to the gut microbiome. It even applies to disorders in our brain, 90 percent (!) of which is controlled from the gut. In short, our intestinal flora offers food for thought as well as entrepreneurship.
Sebo Withoff presents gut chip
How large developments can coalesce on a tiny chip showed Sebo Withoff of the Department of Genetics at UMCG. He is one of the researchers who are part of the leading Microbiome Hub launched last fall. Together with his team, Withoff created a mini intestine on a transparent chip barely two centimeters long, which went from hand to hand among the audience. Little could be seen with the naked eye, but the presentation made it clear how a gut wall-like structure forms in the chip once you insert gut wall cells, immune cells and bacteria into the artificial mini-gut.
The chip is proving to be a valuable tool in drug and genetic research. Withoff is specifically researching Celiac disease, a common and complex intestinal disease popularly called gluten allergy. Through the mini-gut, the team can use patient stem cells to test which modifications can reduce the risks of intestinal damage and improve the immune system. For people with gluten intolerance, this also means they may need to follow a less strict diet. In the future, many more patients may benefit from Withoff and his team's discovery. They see opportunities for wider application of the gut-on-chip in research in Life Science & Health sector.