Human milk oligosaccharides and the infant gut microbiota University of Birmingham in United Kingdom

Species of Bifidobacterium dominate the infant large intestine and they use human milk oligosaccharides as their source of nutrition. To understand this unique and important relationship, this project will uncover the molecular mechanisms these microbes use to breakdown these glycans. This will allow us to understand how the different species of Bifidobacterium use milk oligosaccharides to form the infant microbial ecosystem. The community of microbes in the infant large intestine is highly important to the development of a healthy gut and its composition greatly impacts health throughout the course of a person’s life.

The project will predominantly focus on enzymology and glycobiology techniques, but the student will benefit from the complementary skills and resources available in the Crouch and Hall groups. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of how infant gut microbes interact with human milk oligosaccharides in terms of acquiring nutrition paves the way for understanding what makes a ‘strong’ ecosystem and how to implant a stable ecosystem in disease or dysbiosis states.