Barile Lab awarded California Dairy Research Foundation grant

The Barile lab was awarded a 2-year grant by the California Dairy Research Foundation to study the compositional gap between infant formula and human milk.

The milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) in human milk has demonstrated many health benefits including improved brain development, pathogen prevention, modulation of host gut, and immune system. It is thought that the MFGM’s mechanism may be related to its proteins, many of which await characterization. Infant formulas, however, typically use a blend of vegetable oils for their lipid fraction. These vegetable oils have a different composition than human milk fat, including lacking the MFGM. Therefore, standard infant formulas on the market tend to lack protective properties of the MFGM.

The long-term objective of this work is to develop and validate novel ingredients derived from whey co-products as potent bioactive ingredients that can guide the establishment and maintenance of a beneficial gut microbiome for infants and adults as well as lower inflammation.

For this work, the Barile lab has teamed up with Dr. Helen Raybould, an expert in integrative/translational bioscience (gut physiology, neurobiology, host-microbiota interactions).