INTELLIGENT ENCAPSULATION AND SCREENING PLATFORM FOR PRECISION DELIVERY OF PROBIOTICS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH

Over the past century, drastic lifestyle changes have caused disbalanced gut microbiota, which has been linked to various health conditions and noncommunicable diseases.

Probiotics are a promising route for restoring a healthy gut microbiome, but their inherent sensitivity towards oxygen-, water-, heat and/or gastric acid greatly hampers their widespread application in disease prevention and treatment programs. iNSIGHT solves this longstanding challenge by realizing precision probiotics via a novel and disruptive microencapsulation approach.

We set ourselves the goal to investigate and develop a tunable microcapsule formulation and scalable encapsulation process for the protection and targeted post-stomach delivery of sensitive probiotic formulations.

Specifically, we will work on unique bi-gel-based microencapsulation formulations that are expected to provide unsurpassed protection to probiotics.

To study the structural breakdown of capsules and thereby the controlled release of probiotics, we will develop and test a novel gut-on-a-chip microfluidic device.

To obtain more in-depth knowledge as well as prepare for high-throughput screenings, we incorporate machine learning for i) automated investigation of digestion kinetics under personalizable conditions and ii) automated in-line identification, evaluation, and adjustment of microcapsule synthesis.

As a proof of concept, we will leverage our encapsulation and screening platforms to protect a sensitive next-generation strain and make our precision probiotics formulation available to patients via personalized treatment of a patient cohort under pharmacy legislation.iNSIGHT forms the basis for protection and delivery of sensitive probiotic ingredients, and thereby contributes to the prevention, alleviation, and/or treatment of myriad health conditions related to unhealthy gut microbiota.