Gastrointestinal Microbiota and Advances in Prebiotic and Probiotic Research Conference - Executive Summary

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened the Gastrointestinal Microbiota and Advances in Pre and Probiotic Conference at the Hilton Executive Meeting Center in Rockville, Maryland on December 11-12, 2007. The vast amount of questions, implications, and research gaps associated with this area of study helped attract 160 participants representing a broad spectrum of disciplines. The conference was co-sponsored by Division of Nutrition Research Coordination (DNRC), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), National Institute Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS).

The conference organizers, NIH Prebiotic and Probiotic Working Group, intended for the conference to take an in-depth look at state of the art science and determine future directions of research related to the gastrointestinal microbiota and prebiotic and probiotic research. Additionally, the conference was designed to facilitate interactions and collaborations among research scientists, identify gaps and future research opportunities, support the study of probiotics, and determine future research opportunities with regard to role of probiotics in health and disease.

The overall conference goals were to:

• Summarize the state of the science characterizing gastrointestinal microbiota and its function
• Define microbial populations in different age groups from infancy to adulthood.
• Review the evidence that support the influence of prebiotics and probiotics on normal gut ecology and describe changes in gut ecology associated with various physiologic and pathophysiologic states.
• Define future directions for probiotic research which includes fundamental principles related to assembly and maintenance of gut microbiota and to determine how to conduct clinical trials involving prebiotics and probiotics.

The opening and closing remarks were given by conference co-chairmen Drs. Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University School of Medicine and Jon Vanderhoof of Mead Johnson Nutritionals.
The conference was comprised of five sessions:

Session I: Function of Gut Microbiota

This session reviewed the interrelationships between the immune system and gut microbiota, and discussed how gut microbes affect xenobiotic metabolism.

Session Chair: Cathryn Nagler, Massachusetts General and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Session Speakers:

• Suzanne Hendrich, Iowa State University, Iowa City, Iowa
• Bengt Björksten, Karlinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
• Gary Huffnagle, University of Michigan, Dearborn, Michigan

Session II: Defining Normal Gut Ecology

This session discussed the biogeography of the gut microbiota and the effects of aging on its composition.

Session Chair: Martin Floch, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Session Speakers:

• David Newburg, Massachusetts General, Boston, Massachusetts
• Zhiheng Pei, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York
• Ruth Ley, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
• Adil E. Bharucha, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota
• Simon Hogan, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio

Session III: Impact of Disease on Gut Microbiota

This session investigated the impact of necroticizing enterocolitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and obesity on the human and mouse gut ecosystem.

Session Chair: Martin Blaser, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York

Session Speakers:

• Cathy Hammerman, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem
• Fabio Cominelli, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia
• Jeffrey Gordon, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

Session IV: Factors Influencing Gut Microbiota

This session included discussions of how the intestinal microbiota is affected by probiotics, prebiotics, nutritional status, antibiotic use, and immunoinflammatory states. There was also a presentation about the premature infant.

Session Chair: Mary Ellen Sanders, Dairy and Food Culture Technologies, Centennial, Colorado

Session Speakers:

• Mary Ellen Sanders, Dairy and Food Culture Technologies, Centennial, Colorado
• Leo Dieleman, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
• Frank Greer, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, Wisconsin
• Randy Buddington, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee
• Josef Neu, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Session V: New Developments in Prebiotic and Probiotic Research

This session summarized the recent advances in prebiotic and probiotic research. This particular session also contained a talk about the interrelationship between soy isoflavone-metabolizing phenotypes and human genetics.

Session Chair: James Versalovic, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas

Session Speakers:

• James Versalovic, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas
• Bernhard Watzl, Federal Research Centre for Nutrition and Food, Karlsrune, Germany
• Johanna Lampe, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, Seattle, Washington
• Justin Sonnenburg, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

At the end of each session, there was a thirty minute session discussion that included both the session participants and the audience. This discussion consisted of additional questions for the speakers and feedback from the audience about the session. Please review the hyperlinks within the summary for a more in-depth synopsis of the speakers' presentations at the conference.

Additional Information

For more information or to acquire slides from this conference, please contact

Crystal McDade-Ngutter, Ph.D.
Health Program Specialist
Division of Nutrition Research Coordination
Phone: 301-451-2064
Fax: 301-480-3768
mcdadengutterc@mail.nih.gov

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