Prof. El Aidy wins Gut Microbiome Therapeutic Innovation challenge

Prof. Sahar El Aidy from the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) has won the ProDigest and CosmosID Gut Microbiome Therapeutic Innovation (GMTI) challenge out of almost fifty submissions from all over the world. Prof. El Aidy won the challenge with her research plan to investigate the ‘Role of anti-Parkinson’s Disease (PD) medication in enhancing bacterial overgrowth and community dynamics along the gastrointestinal tract’. She receives EUR 50,000 to conduct her project on ProDigest’s gastrointestinal SHIME® platform, an in vitro simulator of the gastrointestinal tract.

The aim of the project is to identify which gut bacterial metabolites can improve or impair communication with the host gut-brain axis and effectiveness of drug treatments. According to the reviewing committee, the project of Prof. El Aidy ‘addresses the growing question of the role of the microbiota in the Parkinson’s Disease and of drug-bugs interactions’.