Project: The transition from a traditional to a Western lifestyle and its effect on the interrelation between diet, gut microbiome and health

Acronym TransMic
Duration 01/01/2018 - 31/05/2022
Project Topic Chronic diseases have increased to epidemic proportions in Western countries. The composition of the gut microbiota influences health and disease. The comprehensive, systems biology approach of the Human Functional Genomics Project (HFGP) offers unprecedented opportunities to unravel to effects of gut microbiome on health and disease. Still, important gaps in our knowledge remain of how diet influences the composition of the microbiome and its effects on health. TransMic aims to fill these gaps by studying the effects of traditional versus modern ‘Western’ diets on gut microbiome and the functional consequences for health. Data from cohorts from populations in different phases of the demographic transition from Tanzania (Work Package1), Burkina Faso (WP2) and Europe will be used and analyzed using the comprehensive HFGP approach (WP3). In addition, a short dietary intervention will be performed switching young subjects from a Western to a traditional diet and vice versa (WP4). Omics-based data, including microbiome composition, genetics, transcriptome, metabolome and lipidome will be related to functional data, such as immune responses. This large-scale analysis will provide important fundamental insights in the effects of diet on microbiome and health in general and the health effects of ‘westernization’ of diet in particular. It will thereby provide the necessary data for future innovative interventions to improve health, such as directed dietary microbiota modulation.
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Network HDHL-INTIMIC
Call HDHL-INTIMIC Cofunded Call "Interrelation of the Intestinal Microbiome, Diet and Health"

Project partner

Number Name Role Country
1 Radboud university medical center Coordinator Netherlands
2 University of Florence-Meyer Children Hospital Partner Italy
3 University of Bonn Partner Germany
4 Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute Observer Tanzania