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.

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.

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.

Although attempts to modulate or manipulate the intestinal microbiome have so far yielded limited and not entirely satisfactory clinical results, this may largely reflect the remarkable complexity of the gut microbial ecosystem and the fact that many of its mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this context, Vecchi also presented findings from a study in patients with mild to moderate active ulcerative colitis treated either with mesalazine alone or mesalazine plus Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. While the addition of the probiotic did not produce statistically significant differences in clinical endpoints, it was associated with immunoregulatory effects on the mucosal immune system and with a reduction in fecal calprotectin, a key marker of intestinal inflammation. 

These findings suggest that microbiome-based adjunctive strategies, when combined with standard therapy, may offer benefits particularly in supporting long-term disease control and maintenance of remission.

Microbiomepost Microbiomepost.com conducted an exclusive interview with Gianfranco Grompone, Chief Scientific Officer at BioGaia GA to discuss the new evidences about oral microbiome.Distributed across distinct niches such as the tongue, palate, dental plaque, and saliva, the oral microbiome comprises more than 700 microbial species, including bacteria and fungi, organized in resilient biofilms. When this ecosystem shifts toward dysbiosis—often characterized by periodontal pathogens—inflammatory conditions can emerge, including gingivitis and periodontitis, and complications may follow dental procedures such as orthodontic interventions or peri-implantitis. Increasingly, research is also linking the oral microbiome to other body sites, particularly the gut, raising the possibility that oral microbial signatures could serve as proxies for broader systemic health. Emerging evidence suggests associations between specific periodontal pathogens and diseases such as type 2 diabetes, neurological disorders, and colorectal cancer, with Fusobacterium nucleatum frequently cited in this context. Within this landscape, clinically supported probiotics are being investigated as a targeted strategy to modulate oral dysbiosis and inflammation. One approach discussed involves a synergistic combination of Lactobacillus reuteri strains (DSM 17938 and ATCC PTA 5289), developed to reduce periodontal pathogen burden while also attenuating inflammatory processes. More than 70 randomized controlled trials across indications—including gingivitis, periodontitis, peri-implantitis, dental plaque, and caries prevention—were referenced, underscoring the growing role of evidence-based probiotics in oral health.

In the first part, she focuses on preeclampsia and placental complications: according to the evidence presented, dysbiosis can shift circulating metabolites—particularly glucose—with downstream effects on the activity of natural killer (NK) cells, which are essential for proper placental vascularization. When these cells are not adequately activated, placental vascular development may be impaired, increasing the risk of adverse outcomes, including miscarriage—an effect observed mainly in preclinical models.

In the second part, attention turns to the newborn’s earliest life stages and the impact of maternal antibiotic use: while often necessary, antibiotics may disrupt the maternal microbiota and reduce the production and transfer of immunoglobulin A (IgA) into breast milk, weakening a key line of protection for the neonate’s still-immature gut. In the absence of IgA, bacteria such as Enterobacteriaceae (for example, Escherichia coli) may cross a fragile intestinal barrier, enter systemic circulation, and contribute to sepsis.

Among possible mitigation strategies, Rescigno mentions adding fermented milk to support IgA development and considering antibiotic options that do not deplete bacterial groups (such as Clostridiaceae) involved in driving IgA responses.