Some of the probiotic glitterati were at Harvard Medical School for a two-day symposium last week. The lineup of topics stretched across the ages from neonatal to childhood, adulthood, and into the elderly stage. Next time I’ll share before the event—free and first-come,first-serve ticketing, not to mention free lunch; their generous style is part of what makes Harvard so great. (A massive endowment as well as a recent gift of $350 million to the School of Public Health –the largest gift ever given to the institution—may explain some of it but still no hoarding there). Though I was unable to attend, I found the focus and speaker list helpful for research purposes.
In addition to looking at the microbiota across the lifespan, the speakers addressed needs and applications of probiotics.
Included were talks on probiotics in pregnancy, NEC, inflammation, obesity, metabolic syndrome, brain-gut axis, and autism.
Take a look here at the schedule for an idea of who’s who and what is up front and center in the scientific probiotic world.