Project

Call for Partners | Morphius - A healthy microbiome using polyphenols from plant-based side streams

Plant-based side streams are often underutilised, while being highly nutritious. They can be a valuable source of polyphenols that are reported to exhibit a wide range of metabolic health benefits, such as regulation of blood glucose, inflammation and blood pressure. This might be attributed to the bidirectional interaction of polyphenols with the gut microbiome. This project will provide opportunities and limitations of using polyphenol-rich side streams and the necessary in-depth research to understand polyphenol-gut microbiota interactions and their link with human health.

It is highly recognized that a shift towards a plant-based diet is essential for our planetary health. However, in the production of plant-based foods, there is a lot of underutilized potential in plant-based side streams. These side streams contain highly nutritious components and could be valorised to support human health. In this project we would like to focus on polyphenols in plant-based side streams and how they can potentially elicit health benefits via an interaction with the gut microbiome.

We will explore the potential of polyphenols in various plant-based side streams for the supplement market, as well as the B2B ingredient business and food industry. This will include; practical and technical applications, issues in supplement and/or food production, legislation on the use of polyphenols regarding safety, EFSA claims, and novel food dossiers. If relevant, also sensory aspects of supplements and food products will be studied.

To gain more insight into the potential health benefits of polyphenols, we want to mainly focus on their (largely unexplored) interaction with the gut microbiome. By applying in silico analyses on existing metagenomic datasets, both publicly available and in-house, we want to identify key-genes that play a role in metabolization of polyphenols by the gut microbiome. The in silico analyses are expected to also provide leads for microbiome-derived metabolites that can support human health. In in vitro fecal microbiome models, we will study and validate the metabolization potential of the gut microbiome predicted in the in silico analysis. Consortium partners can contribute with polyphenols from food side streams or supplements to be screened for their potential to modulate the gut microbiome and in this way generate leads for their possible health benefit.

Partners

We are looking for Dutch and internationalpartners to apply together for the TKI-A&F PPS Agri & Food grant call (deadline 1 Sept 2024):

  • Commercial partners:
    • (Agricultural / horticultural) companies with plant-based side streams
    • Food companies
    • Supplement companies
    • (Plant-based) ingredient companies
  • Governmental partners (Ministries LNV and EZK)

The project will be governed by the project committee with one representativeper partner, which is responsible for high-level oversight, IPdevelopment, and dissemination​.

A financial contribution of at least 50% is needed from the commercial partners (25% cash, 25% in kind).