In this closing interview from PPPP 2026 in Lecce, Prof. Flavia Indrio reflects on the main take-home messages from the congress, which brought together 32 leading international experts in microbiota research, allergy, nutrition, gut-brain axis and lung disease. Among the strongest themes to emerge was the importance of early-life intestinal colonization, with breastfeeding, avoidance of unnecessary C-sections and prompt management of dysbiosis identified as key factors in shaping health trajectories later in life. Indrio also highlights the growing clinical relevance of gut-brain axis research, which is beginning to open new therapeutic perspectives in severe pediatric conditions such as autism spectrum disorders and cognitive development disorders. 

A central focus of her interview is a 10-year follow-up study on newborns supplemented with Lactobacillus reuteri during the first three months of life, showing that beneficial effects may persist over time. The interview also touches on new insights into allergy, the interplay between microbiome and epigenetics, and the pivotal role of nutrition as a driver of intestinal colonization. The next PPPP meeting, she announces, will take place in Mexico City in March 2028, with broader involvement from the Latin American scientific community.

In this interview Paul Wilmes, University of Luxembourg, explores the concept of infective competence within a One Health framework, describing it as the collective capacity of microbiomes to harbor and transmit virulence factors, antimicrobial resistance genes, biosynthetic gene clusters, toxins, and other disease-relevant determinants. 

By integrating metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic, and metabolomic data from the same samples, the work aims to reconstruct interaction networks within microbial communities and identify how their emerging properties may causally influence human disease pathways. 

Central to this approach is the PathoFact pipeline, used to systematically profile infective competence across diverse microbiome reservoirs, including humans, animals, the built environment, and natural ecosystems. The interview highlighted findings from hospital settings, community transmission of SARS-CoV-2, animal antimicrobial exposure, wastewater treatment systems, and glacier-fed streams, showing how different environments shape gene flow and resistance dynamics. Additional results linked oral-to-gut microbial transmission with inflammatory signatures in type 1 diabetes. To move from association to mechanism, the research program is expanding its HUMIX microfluidic model and coupling high-throughput experiments with advanced AI methods to identify causal molecules and host interactions. Overall, the talk positioned infective competence as a unifying concept for studying how interconnected microbiome reservoirs contribute to health and disease in the broader context of planetary change.

The findings, published in Cell Reports Medicine, suggest that specific gut microbes and metabolites can serve as biomarkers to help diagnosing depression and guide treatment.

While it’s known that certain microbes and metabolites can influence depression by affecting brain pathways and neurotransmitters, it’s unclear whether they could reliably help diagnose the condition.

Researchers led by Mingliang Zhao at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China conducted a study analyzing gut bacteria and blood metabolites in dozens of people with depression, before and after treatment.

Metabolic patterns

By comparing blood and stool samples from non-depressed individuals with samples from people with depression, the researchers found that people with depression showed alterations in their blood metabolites. An analysis of more than 200 metabolites revealed 34 molecules that differed between depressed and non-depressed people.

Many of these changes were reversed after treatment, showing that medications can restore certain metabolic patterns. Animal experiments confirmed similar trends, supporting the connection between gut microbes, metabolism, and depression.

Using data from one group of participants, the researchers found that certain metabolites mediate the effects of specific gut microbes on depression. For example, the amino acid L-tyrosine mediated some of the effects of one bacterial species on depression, and homovanillic acid partly mediated the effects of another. 

Identifying depression

Key bacteria and metabolites, such as Bifidobacterium longum, Roseburia intestinalis, serotonin, and homovanillic acid, were linked to lower depression risk, while others, such as Blautia obeum and 2-hydroxybutyric acid, were linked to higher risk, the researchers found. 

Building on these findings, the team developed a machine-learning model using 34 metabolites that could reliably identify depressed individuals.

Although more research is needed to confirm these results, the findings “highlight metabolites as key mediators linking microbiota to depression and as valuable indicators for its identification,” the authors say.

In this interview, professor Piergiorgio Natali (Mediterranean Task force for Cancer Control) discusses the importance of improving functional foods as a strategy to support health, particularly during aging. In this context, special attention was given to whole tomato as a candidate food source because of its global availability, growing market relevance, and rich content of health-promoting nutrients with well-recognized anti-inflammatory potential.

The research line presented focuses on the development of a physical treatment process applied to the whole tomato, including peels and seeds, in order to obtain a powder with enhanced antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. According to the evidence collected so far, this formulation appears capable of inhibiting several biological pathways involved in chronic diseases. Supporting data have been generated across different levels of investigation, including laboratory studies, animal models, and human studies, providing a solid scientific basis for further development.

Tomato also offers an important advantage for clinical research, as the distribution of its major nutrients in the body is already well understood. This makes it possible to identify specific target organs that may benefit from the new formulation, including the liver, testis, and prostate. Beyond its direct biological activity, tomato may also exert beneficial effects on the intestinal microbiome by reducing inflammatory status and improving gut barrier permeability. Altogether, these findings support the potential of a whole-tomato–based functional formulation as an accessible and promising tool for the prevention or modulation of chronic disease-related processes and for the promotion of healthier aging.

The findings, published in Cell Host & Microbe, suggest that specific microbial genes can affect how diet affects cancer progression.

Scientists have known that gut bacteria consume nutrients and produce metabolites that shape host physiology, and that dietary supplements can have mixed or even opposite effects in different individuals. However, it’s not known how specific microbial genes control nutrient availability inside tumors, nor how these genes interact with diet to influence immune cells and tumor outcomes. 

Working in mice, Shanshan Qiao at Cornell University in New York and her colleagues tested whether gut bacteria change how dietary amino acids influence cancer growth. 

Promoting cancer

The researchers compared mice with gut microbes to mice that lacked them and fed both groups diets with either low or high amino acid content. In mice without gut microbes, diets rich in amino acids led to higher amino acid levels in the body and faster tumor growth, but this effect was much weaker in mice with normal gut bacteria.

Human gut bacteria vary widely in how much they consume amino acids, and when these bacteria were transferred into mice, those receiving microbes that consumed more amino acids ended up with lower amino acid levels in their bodies. These animals also developed smaller tumors. 

Next, the researchers studied individual bacterial genes that break down amino acids in the gut and found that when these genes were missing, more amino acids remained available in the body and within tumors, promoting their growth. 

Precision medicine 

The team focused on a bacterial gene, called bo-ansB, that breaks down the amino acid asparagine. When bacteria were able to use asparagine, amino acid supplements worsened tumors, but when the bacteria could not use asparagine, the supplements improved tumor control by supporting cancer-fighting immune cells.

When bo-ansB was removed, more asparagine reached tumors, boosting immune responses and improving the effectiveness of anti-cancer therapy, the researchers found.

The findings suggest that gut microbes can influence cancer outcomes by regulating nutrient availability and uptake in immune cells, the authors say. The results, they add, “establish the gut microbiome as a genetically tractable ‘metabolic organ’ and uncover a regulatory layer linking dietary amino acid, microbiota function, and cancer—offering opportunities for precision medicine.”

Translational research has played a pivotal role in advancing microbiome science, particularly by supporting the standardization of omics platforms, analytical pipelines, and laboratory procedures. As the field moves beyond descriptive studies, the current challenge is to translate microbiome knowledge into clinically relevant diagnostics and therapeutics. In this perspective, next-generation sequencing remains fundamental for defining the ecological composition of microbial communities, but it is increasingly complemented by mass spectrometry-based approaches that enable deeper functional characterization through metabolomics and metaproteomics. The integration of these multi-layered datasets is essential to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of microbiome patterns, combining ecological and functional information into a unified framework. While much of the evidence to date has focused on the gut microbiome, future research will need to extend standardized approaches to other microbial niches, including the respiratory tract and skin. Strengthening methodological standardization across microbiome studies will be crucial for building robust diagnostic pipelines capable of generating targeted microbial profiles. In turn, these advances may support the development of precision therapeutic strategies, including probiotic interventions, nutritional modifications, and fecal microbiota transplantation. Overall, translational research is expected to serve as the bridge between laboratory innovation and the implementation of microbiome-based precision medicine.

Falcone explains that her group has identified alterations in microbiota-derived metabolites in patients with multiple sclerosis and has also shown that the gut microbiota can directly promote the activation of autoreactive T cells, which then migrate to peripheral organs and contribute to disease onset and progression. These findings open important clinical and therapeutic perspectives. Current strategies under investigation include the use of probiotics, dietary interventions, and fecal microbiota transfer, not only from healthy donors but potentially also from patients who respond well to immunoregulatory therapies.

Key themes included augmented foods to support the microbiome and astronaut performance, smart textiles integrating microbial and sensor-based solutions for skin health and physiological monitoring, and hibernation-inspired strategies informed by microbiome changes observed in animal models. The session also emphasized the reverse perspective: how the constraints of space can accelerate the clinical translation of microbiome innovation on Earth by testing robustness, feasibility, and implementation in extreme environments. This cross-disciplinary dialogue has now led to the launch of Microbiome Futures, a new think tank dedicated to human adaptation, starting in 2026 with a focus on space and the microbiome.

Visitors to booth #3C88 will find the ‘The Longevity Shift’—the company’s highly acclaimed interactive installation making its European debut at the show. Designed to spark a fundamental reframing of how the industry thinks about longevity, the experience highlights the nutrition industry’s need to shift from life expectancy to health expectancy and focuses on science-backed approaches to support health in later life and ensure that later years are some of the best.

The company will spotlight two new innovations from its health expectancy portfolio. Featured at booth #3C88 and in the New Products Zone, Age Slower targets chronic inflammation—one of the key hallmarks of aging—and is supported by landmark DO-HEALTH trial research demonstrating that life’s®OMEGA 60 and Quali®-D combined can slow biological aging by approximately three months over three years. Its second innovation—Cellular Repair—targets cellular senescence. It features natural flavonoids with senolytic properties that selectively eliminate senescent “zombie” cells without harming healthy ones. Cellular Repair will be available for visitors to sample in an innovative on-the-go format using the ‘Easy Snap’ one-hand opening technology at the Tasting Centre. 

“The science we’re presenting at Vitafoods Europe 2026—from slowing biological aging to targeting the hallmarks of aging—represents a genuine leap forward for the category, and we want attendees to experience what that means in practice in our immersive experience. Our ambition is to lead the longevity category globally, and Barcelona is where we’re going to continue building on our global position within Europe,” commented Giovanni Calderoni, VP of Dietary Supplements EMEA at dsm-firmenich. To learn more and book a meeting with the dsm-firmenich team at Vitafoods Europe 2026, visit the event page.

The findings, published in Cell, suggest that maintaining a healthy gut microbiota could be critical for preventing immune-related pregnancy complications. 

Scientists have known that the gut microbiota can influence immune function, but it’s not well understood how gut microbes shape immune responses and how microbiota-derived metabolites regulate immune cells.

So, Julia Brown at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and her colleagues studied how the gut microbiota influences maternal-fetal immune tolerance using mice and human data.

Immune imbalance

In pregnant mice, the gut became more “leaky” and the composition of gut bacteria changed. These shifts were linked to alterations in immune cells in the intestine. Mice without gut bacteria or with disrupted gut bacteria after treatment with the antibiotic vancomycin had higher rates of fetal death and abnormal immune signals in the placenta and uterus. 

In these animals, placentas had more immune cells that attack fetal cells and higher levels of inflammatory molecules, resulting in increased pregnancy loss. Key immune cells that typically help suppress harmful immune responses in the placenta were fewer or less effective in mice lacking gut microbes. 

However, microbial metabolites derived from the amino acid tryptophan helped these immune cells work properly, the researchers found.

Pregnancy loss

Tissue from women with recurrent miscarriages showed similar immune problems, with key immune cells and gut-derived metabolites being disrupted. The findings suggest that these problems can contribute to recurrent pregnancy loss in humans, the researchers say.

Although the study shows that gut bacteria help train immune cells during pregnancy, more research is needed to understand how other body microbes contribute and exactly how these immune signals affect fetal health.

More studies are also needed to see how these results apply to people, the authors say. “Our mouse study may provide insights into specific immune pathways that are perturbed due to loss of vancomycin-sensitive gut bacteria and microbiota-derived tryptophan derivatives; this, however, needs to be further validated in controlled human studies.”