Lecture ‘Unraveling the health effects of polyphenols: Is the gut microbiota playing a lead role?’

Description

As a researcher, it is becoming more important to look beyond the borders of your area of expertise. Interdisciplinary collaboration can provide new insights to pressing research questions. With this in mind, the Scientific Research Committee and the departments of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences organise 'Interdisciplinary Medical & Health Seminars' together. Both state-of-the-art fundamental (bio)medical research as well as translational and clinical research are discussed.

Program

This lecture will start with an introduction on polyphenols (i.e. chemical structures, classes, food sources). Then, the health effects of polyphenols will be discussed, focusing mainly on antioxidant and cardiovascular effects. The third part of this lecture will zoom into bioavailability issues of polyphenols. Their biotransformation by the gut microbiota can be studied by conducting experiments in an in vitro biotransformation platform. This will be illustrated in two specific ‘polyphenolic cases’: chlorogenic acid, which is an important polyphenolic constituent of coffee, and olive phenolic compounds.

• Guest speaker: Prof. Nina Hermans
• Organiser: Department of Rehabilitation Sciences
• Host: Prof. Patrick Calders