Microbiome Digestion Matters: Maximising the Benefits of Dietary Glycans in Early Life

The gut microbiome is a system helps with enteric pathogens that may cause illnesses through local and systemic inflammatory responses. While it is unique in every individual, there are certain combinations and amounts of species present in the gut that depict what a healthy microbiome is. The gut microbiota develops sequentially, where each stage would influence the next, achieving a healthy microbiome early on avoids a snowball effect on the later stages. This lecture by Dr. Giles Major, focuses on glycans, such as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in breastmilk, and how this helps shape the microbiome in infancy that serves as the foundation for the gut microbiota.