Microbes 2012 - 3rd TNO Beneficial Microbes Conference

WELCOME TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE HEALTH IMPACT AND FUTURE POTENTIAL OF BENEFICIAL MICROBES!

It's with great pleasure that we announce the upcoming 3rd TNO Beneficial Microbes Conference, to be held in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, on 26-28 March 2012.

The microbiota in the gastro-intestinal tract of man and animals has been shown to be important for health and disease. Moreover, over the past decades the benefit of probiotics has been shown in various areas such as allergy, inflammatory disease, competitive exclusion of pathogens, stool habit, etc. Furthermore, probiotics and prebiotics are used in infant formula to direct the development of the endogenous microbiota. For probiotics, an interaction with the mucosal immune system seems the major mechanism by which these beneficial microbes exert their benefit to the host. Numerous hypotheses on how they might work have been postulated. The role of prebiotics in directing the composition and activity of the endogenous microbiota is also studied widely.

The 3rd TNO Beneficial Microbes Conference will highlight the most recent advances in the understanding of the mechanisms behind the health benefit of probiotics and how the endogenous microbiota influences health and disease. Specific topic areas include beneficial microbes and the host metabolism, host-microbe communication, beneficial microbes and immune modulation, metagenomics and microbiome, application of beneficial microbes and prebiotics, and validated in vitro models.

We aim at a networking meeting to inform you on the latest scientific developments and the industry's requirements and to create a European platform for new initiatives for the application of beneficial microbes in the food and feed industry.

On behalf of the Advisory Board,

Koen Venema and Marjorie Koenen