FibRestoration · FibRestoration - Novel specialized probiotics for restoring a healthy fiber-degrading microbiome

Dietary fiber is well-recognized as beneficial to gut microbiome and has repercussions on human health. Consequently, in recent years, alternative dietary lifestyles favoring the consumption of high amounts of dietary fibers have been proposed. In order to avoiddigestive discomfort associated with the increased intake of dietary fiber, we propose to develop probiotics that will target cellulose, the main component of dietary fiber. Indeed, cellulose-degrading bacteria are absent both in gut microbiomes of most human populations and in existing probiotics. During our proposed project, we will isolate unique fiber-degrading bacterium and restore it in the human microbiome via administration of probiotics. Thus, our products will comprise this bacterium either alone or in combination with other fiber-degrading strains and will augment the fiber-degrading potential of the human gut microbiome with concomitant implications in human health. Such probiotics will address the majority of global human populations and will constitute a niche in the global probiotics market, which is projected to further increase in the next decade.