Investigating the effect of a seaweed-derived common food ingredient (carrageenan) on the human gut microbiome

卡拉胶是一种海藻提取物，广泛用于制备食品，包括乳制品，烘焙食品和肉制品。它作为一种常见的食品成分越来越受欢迎，但一些负面新闻报道了与有害的胃肠道影响的联系。海藻及其提取物一般被认为对人类饮食有益，因为它们富含营养素，并与积极的健康结果有关。因此，迫切需要更好地了解卡拉胶消费对肠道和整体健康的影响。肠道是一个复杂的微生物群落（肠道微生物组）的家园，它在消化和分解膳食成分、合成维生素、产生微生物代谢物方面支持宿主，并通过保护免受入侵病原体的侵害在维持免疫健康方面发挥重要作用。研究表明，肠道微生物组的改变会对宿主健康产生影响（积极和消极）。我们假设卡拉胶会改变微生物种群的多样性和相对分布，这种组成的变化可能会导致微生物活性的改变，这有可能影响人类健康。这个跨越整个食品系统的博士项目，需要一个跨学科的方法来更好地了解卡拉胶对人类肠道微生物组的影响。应用两位学术主管和工业主管（嘉吉）的知识和专业知识，将涉及尖端技术，如海藻提取，体外微生物研究（包括建立和运行人类肠道的实验室模型），大规模生产含角叉菜胶的食品，进行人类饮食试验，然后进行多组学（微生物组学和代谢组学）分析方法，以确定食用角叉菜胶后微生物和代谢谱的变化。

Carrageenan is a seaweed extract used extensively in prepared food including dairy, bakery and meat products. It is growing in popularity as a common food ingredient, however some negative press has reported an association with harmful gastrointestinal effects. Seaweed and their extracts in general are considered beneficial to the human diet as they are rich in nutrients and have been associated with positive health outcomes. Hence, there is an urgent need to better understand the impact of carrageenan consumption on gut and overall health. The gut is home to a complex community of microorganisms (gut microbiome) which supports the host in terms of digestion and breaking down dietary components, synthesis of vitamins, generation of microbial metabolites and playing an important role in maintaining immune health by protecting against invading pathogens. Research has demonstrated that alterations to the gut microbiome can impact on host health (both positively and negatively). We hypothesise that carrageenan will alter the diversity and relative distribution of microbial populations, and that this change in composition may result in alteration of microbial activity, which has the potential to impact on human health.This PhD project spanning the entire Food System, entails a cross-disciplinary approach to better understand the impact of carrageenan on the human gut microbiome. Applying the knowledge and expertise of the two academic supervisors and industrial supervisor (Cargill), it will involve cutting edge techniques such as seaweed extraction, in vitro microbiological studies (including setting up and running laboratory models of the human gut), producing a carrageenan-containing food product at scale, running a human dietary trial followed by a multi-omics (microbiomics and metabolomics) analytical approach to characterise the change in microbial and metabolic profile following carrageenan consumption.