Husker-developed bacterium outperforms commercial probiotic

August 9, 2018

University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers have developed a probiotic — sometimes referred to as beneficial bacteria — inside the competitive environment of the human gut, where it successfully competed against trillions of microorganisms.

Surviving these Darwinian origins likely gave the probiotic a performance boost, says a new study published in the journal Microbiome. The study’s authors include Nebraska’s Bob Hutkins and the University of Alberta’s Jens Walter, who conducted the study while an associate professor at Nebraska. It is the first clinical trial of the team’s probiotic strain, known as Bifidobacterium adolescentis IVS-1.

Researchers used DNA sequencing to analyze how many beneficial bacteria stayed in the gut after adults consumed various gut health products. The team’s IVS-1 strain remained in high numbers, outperforming a commercial probiotic widely used in food products such as yogurt.

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Story by Alyssa Amen | NUtech Ventures