Barile Lab and Mills Lab Receive Food Systems Innovation Award

The Barile Lab and Mills Lab received the UC DAvis Food Systems Innovation Award for their project entitled, "Developing Activated Probiotics for Enhanced Persistence and Colonization of the Gut."

The project centers around probiotics, which are increasingly used to improve gut health. One current challenge with the implementation of probiotics is their lack of persistence in gut ecosystems, which lowers their efficacy. Co-principle investigator David Mills and his lab have demonstrated that complexing probiotic bacteria with milk glycoproteins increases probiotic persistence in the gut. Dr. Gulustan Ozturk, postdoc in the Barile Lab, will be leading the effort to examine whey phospholipid concentrate, a waste stream from cheese production that is rich in milk glycoproteins, as a generalized substrate to complex with probiotic strains to enhance probiotic efficacy.

More information about the recipients of other UC Davis Innovation Awards can be found at: https://research.ucdavis.edu/uc-davis-proof-of-concept-grants-advance-innovations-towards-commercialization/

Story by: Sierra Durham