2019_07_22_FAR_estudio_microbiota

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the call"Retos de research ", has awarded a project presented by the research center in Nutrition of the University of Navarra. The project is led by the researchers Fermín Milagro and José Ignacio Riezu. In addition, the team researcher includes Dr. Paula Aranaz and Dr. Ana Romo.

"The main goal of project is to study the role played by the microbiota in the regulation of energy metabolism, especially in the development of obesity and its comorbidities (insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk factors), both through metabolites produced by the microbiota (known as postbiotics) and microRNAs produced by the microbiota or from food," explains Fermín Milagro. The impact of the proposal is based on the possibility of using the results as new therapeutic strategies to prevent and treat obesity and associated diseases, as well as to help reduce the public expense that this disease currently represents.

"We hope to obtain three types of results in the long term deadline ", advances Milagro. "On the one hand, the possibility of obtaining new biomarkers (metagenomics, metabolomics and miRNAomics) useful in the early detection of people at high risk for obesity and its comorbidities. Secondly, the study will allow us to discover new probiotics and post-biotics that can contribute to the control of body weight and adiposity; and thirdly, to identify miRNAs of food, bacterial or eukaryotic origin, which could facilitate new therapeutic targets for the treatment of obesity", he concludes.

The project has obtained a total subsidy of 120,000 euros for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021.