Michiel Kleerebezem is to receive a four-hundred-thousand-euro NWO grant for further research into health-promoting bacteria in the human gut. Kleerebezem, professor of Host-Microbe Interactomics, aims to investigate the lifestyle of bifidobacteria.
Bifidobacteria are gut bacteria that suppress other, harmful bacteria and stimulate the absorption of iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc. They are dominant in the guts of infants that receive breastfeeding. In this situation, the ‘bifido’ population can grow to 80% of the entire gut microbiome. Once children switch to solid foods, the proportion of bifido bacteria gradually shrink until they form only a small percentage of the bacterial community in the guts of adults.
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