Nanostructure formation during food protein digestion and influence on intestinal transport

Introduction

The global food system is currently facing great challenges, which are mainly motivated by environmental and health-related concerns:

1. The existing food resources are not efficiently utilized; while some of them are overexploited, causing water/soil shortage, biodiversity losses, etc., others are not properly valorized (e.g. seaweeds).
2. Moreover, the unhealthy dietary habits of modern societies are leading to a dramatic increase in the incidence of diet-related chronic diseases (e.g. obesity, diabetes, etc.).

In this context, the food industry is actively looking for novel food sources with added health benefits. However, to design strategies for a sustainable production of nutritious food products from alternative sources and to predict their potential metabolic responses (e.g. satiety, allergenicity, etc.), it is essential to understand how food structure, digestibility, and bioavailability are correlated.

Project Overview

PRODIGEST seeks to investigate this topic from a novel perspective, focusing on the mechanistic and structural aspects of the gastrointestinal digestion of food proteins and studying their implications on bioavailability.

Research Focus

The type of structures formed by the assembly of the digestion products through intermolecular associations or by interactions with physiological medium components will be studied. Additionally, the effect of dietary fibers (which are abundant in alternative protein sources) will be linked to their intestinal transport and susceptibility to trigger metabolic responses.

Methodology

To address this challenge, a set of advanced structural characterization tools will be combined through a multi-disciplinary approach, including:

• X-ray and neutron scattering techniques
• Peptidomic analyses
• Rheology
• Intestinal transport studies

This approach will interconnect structural characterization, food science, and biotechnology.

Potential Applications

The project outcomes will find potential applications in diverse research areas, such as:

• Nutrition
• Food technology
• Pharmacology
• Medicine