Developing multiscale models of digestion to enable targeted product solutions for nutrition and metabolic health

胃肠道是一个连续的器官，在其长度上有不同的复杂环境，目的是为了有效地吸收食物。食物通过多种机制对食欲调节和葡萄糖动态平衡产生的影响可以发生在从口腔到结肠的胃肠道中。然而，对饱腹感和胃肠道释放的葡萄糖调节荷尔蒙的影响最大的是在进食后30-60分钟。人们对早期食物消化和代谢过程之间的关系知之甚少，代谢过程驱动了影响食欲和葡萄糖动态平衡的机制。我们的目标是开发结合工程和理论物理方法的多尺度消化模型，以实现针对营养和代谢健康的有针对性的产品解决方案。我们将建立一个基本的理解，这将为理解下面概述的一系列科学和技术问题提供重要的基础：1.合理设计饮食成分以保持健康的体重对于实现健康老龄化至关重要。在英格兰，60%的成年人口超重或肥胖，这给公共卫生和经济带来了重大负担。因此，了解饮食成分如何在人的一生中保持能量和葡萄糖的动态平衡成为当务之急。2.在全球范围内，需要合理设计食物，以确保增加卡路里供应和最有效地利用与发展中世界有关的粮食资源。需要了解健康的肠道，以便为消化系统疾病的模型提供信息。这特别及时，因为新技术的最新进展正在成为可能(多尺度建模、物理成像)。我们还能够在DRINC项目下的进展基础上再接再厉，这些项目有助于对生化和生物物理消化环境的新理解。这项工作还建立在一个欧盟项目的协调一致的INFOGEST议定书的基础上。此外，由于沙坑的存在，我们确定了跨学科的新专业知识，这些专业知识在破译食物结构消化的复杂性方面发挥着非常明显的作用。

The gastrointestinal tract is a continuous organ with different complex environments along its length aimed at the efficient absorption of food. The impact that food can make, through an number of mechanisms, on appetite regulation and glucose homeostasis can occur in the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the colon. However, the greatest impact on satiety and glucose regulating hormones released from the gastrointestinal tract is seen after 30-60 minutes following the consumption of food. There is little understanding of the relationship between early food digestion and the metabolic processes that drive mechanisms that effect appetite and glucose homeostasis. Our aim is to develop multiscale models of digestion incorporating engineering and theoretical physics methodologies to enable targeted product solutions for nutrition and metabolic health. We will develop a fundamental understanding which provides a vital basis to understanding a range of scientific and technological questions outlined below:1. Rational design of dietary components to maintain a healthy weight is critically important to enable healthy ageing. In England, 60% of the adult population is overweight or obese, which imposes a major public health and financial burden. Therefore, it becomes a priority to understand how dietary components can maintain energy and glucose homeostasis across the lifespan. 2. On a global scale, rational design of foodstuffs is required to ensure enhanced calorie availability and the most efficient use of food resources that will be relevant to the developing world.3. Understanding of the healthy gut to inform models of diseases of the digestive system is needed.This is particularly timely because of recent advances in the new techniques that are becoming available (multi-scale modelling, physical imaging). We are also able to build on advances under the DRINC projects, which have contributed new understanding of the biochemical and biophysical digestive environment. The work also builds on the harmonised INFOGEST protocol from an EU-based project. In addition, as a result of the sandpit, we have identified novel expertise across disciplines which has a very obvious role to play in deciphering the complexities of digestion of food structures.