Funding outcome

There are healthy microbes that live in our gut and help us digest the food we eat. These microbes include types of bacteria, fungi and viruses. This community of microbes in our gut can change for different reasons. In turn, this can change the way we are able to break down certain foods. Our team has shown that when this happens, children may be more likely to develop certain diseases later in life. One such disease is called Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). In IBD the gut becomes damaged by out-of-control inflammation (swelling, redness, bleeding). We know that changes in the gut can happen very early in life. The first food that these microbes will eat is the sugars found in breast milk. But some women can't breast feed. In this case some babies will drink formula instead. But the sugars in baby formula come from plants instead of the baby's mother. Our team wants to know how changes in the baby's microbes affect the way their gut will use the sugars in baby formula compared to breast milk sugars. If babies are not able to digest certain plant-based sugars, they may develop gut damage. This damage may promote babies to develop certain inflammatory diseases or IBD later in life. If we better understand this process, we can provide better safety information on baby formula. This might include using special breast milk registries to try and keep a baby's gut bacteria healthy. In doing so, we hope to prevent inflammation in the baby's gut and reduce their risk of some diseases later in life.