now I know it might be easy to think
that microbes are bad especially for
infants but research has in fact proven
the opposite and the truth might be a
little bit more complex but it's
actually way more interesting it seems
that we need microbes to be programmed
for good health but not just any
microbes we need the right combination
we success best with the little
microbial bodies we have adapted to go
exist with during evolution and I guess
it won't surprise you to learn that we
start acquiring that right combination
right at birth well at least some of us
do babies born by c-section and babies
born vaginally aren't the same when it
comes to microbial start to life and
after birth there are countless
different early life events and
circumstances that further modulate the
way the gut microbiota is developing
such as the medications that might be
prescribed for the infant or the mother
a number of pets and siblings in the
family as well as level of hygiene at
home and in this case it's actually
better if it's not that perfectly clean
all the time and also nutrition both
mothers and infants all of these events
and circumstances play a huge role in
the gut microbiota development and that
has a huge impact on the lifelong health
of that baby and I'm not talking about
small health implications here I'm
talking about the big stuff microbes we
acquire do not acquire affect our
likelihood of developing diseases like
obesity diabetes and even some cancers
since many of these early life events I
just listed are such that we cannot
affect them they are inevitable for
example c-sections have been invented to
save lives and they do that daily and
most medications are prescribed for a
reason especially for infants and so on
that is why we have to learn how to
protect the health of these babies after
the occurrence of such early life even
that might disrupt their gut microbiota
development I work as a researcher and
as a technical lead of infant health
platform and the question I'm trying to
find a solution every day at work and
the same question I'm aiming to answer
in this talk is how can we make sure
that all babies get the same shot at
lifelong health no matter how they're
born or what early life events they
encounter seems like a noble cause right
great so let's figure this out
to begin remember how I said that we
need the right combination of microbes
well to get that combination right we
need to receive those microbes that
inhabit our bodies in a certain order
you can think of it like a colonization
march the very early microbes that
inhabit our bodies first change the
environment in the infant's cut so that
the next microbes are able to move in
kind of like the first invaders come in
first and set up the infrastructure for
the other settlers to build upon
now if babies are born by c-section that
early phase of colonization is greatly
altered because instead of vaginal
vehicle and skin bacteria of the mother
mainly only skin bacteria enter the
infant gut and that sets that
colonization march totally different
tone and simply because that's different
to what we have adapted during evolution
that might cause some health
disadvantages for c-section born babies
later on we can take weight development
as an example here it has been already
shown in several studies that gut
microbiota composition is associated to
weight as well as the likelihood
developing diseases like diabetes or
cardiovascular
diseases but now there are some
indications that you could already add
infancy see from a fecal sample of a
baby some microbes missing from those
individuals who will later on developed
to be obese or overweight there it has
also been shown that those same microbes
might be missing from babies who are
born by c-section or who are predisposed
to heavy loads of antibiotics in early
life and to kind of close this loop it
has also been shown in some research
that babies born by c-section or are
prescribed with many many antibiotics
early in life are more likely to be
obese or overweight even by 50% which is
a lot now I know you might be thinking
at this point that oh no I just had a
c-section or I was born via c-section or
my child had done antibiotics but I want
you to not worry if these microbes are
missing or lost for any reason they can
be acquired later but the baby just
needs a little help with that one thing
that has already for some time been
known to help is breast feeding breast
milk is kind of miraculous in addition
to containing nutrients for the baby it
seems to contain food for the good
microbes as well that's great for a
breastfed baby but we all know that all
babies are not breastfed so what could
we do to ensure that also those babies
who are not pressed that could restore
their microbiota development after
encountering those disruptive early life
events that might Rita disrupt a gut
microbiota development and now we get to
the actual solution part of this talk
the research in this field has been
taking giant steps lately first it was
understood that if there are some
microbes missing they can be ingested we
call the good microbes when they are
ingested probiotics and probiotics have
been tested in several clinical trials
during the years
so in infants with great effects such as
reducing the risk of eczema later in
life now a second revolution was
realized when the eyes of researchers
were turned to press milk that was
logical as like I mentioned it was
already known that breastfeeding is able
to support the healthy development of
gut microbiota there were these
particles in pressed milk that were
found already in 1930s called human milk
oligosaccharides but their function
remained in history for decades and
decades after their initial discovery
they were really bustling for
researchers as they are really abundant
in human milk they are actually the
thirdly largest group of solids but they
are not digestible by humans not even
infants so why would mothers synthesize
something to press milk use their
resources to put something there that is
not utilizable by the infant usually
nature does not work that way right so
it was quite a revelation when it was
finally understood what's the role of
these particles and that it is to
selectively feed the microbes that are
best for infants and that way to affect
the infant's health there are over a
hundred of different HMO structures and
nowadays we are able to synthesize some
of them also in the lab and that enables
us to package them up with probiotics
for children and infants who are not
able to receive them from breast milk to
restore their microbiota after
encountering disruptive early life
events and that is the solution as a
researcher I must say at this point that
research in this field is still ongoing
and a lot of work remains to be done
that's a favorite sentence of a
scientists but we are taking steps
towards understanding better and better
which are the key missing microbes in
various situations and what
hmos we should package with which
probiotics to help restore the
microbiota of that particular baby in
that particular case what I wish you to
remember from this talk is that yes but
generally born breastfed baby has the
microbiota that we have evolved to adapt
to but in cases where that is not
possible there are means to reduce the
negative health consequences lastly I
wish you to imagine a world for a while
a world where there would be such health
care system that when you take your baby
to a health care check they would
routinely monitor they got microbiota
development of that baby and if any
disruptions would be noted a tailor-made
product to restore the microbiota would
be prescribed
I mean how wonderful would that be if
onset of any chronic diseases would be
extremely rare because of this
pre-emptive health care system can you
imagine such world do you believe that
that kind of future would be possible I
do I believe in that future and I want
to contribute in the unfolding of that
future a future in which each baby has
an equal starting point for life to be
programmed for a lifelong health thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]