Danone Research is associated to the IHMC

Human Microbiome research has become one of the most exciting fields in biology, generating fascinating insights into the relations of microbes and man and the effects of our microbes on our health and well-being. We can expect from this research, many new opportunities for the future in the area of nutrition. World leading scientists will discuss the new findings, their impacts and the future trends at the next International Human Microbiome Congress (IHMC), organized by the European consortium MetaHIT in Paris, March 19-21, 2012 at the Palais Brogniart. MetaHIT is a project financed by the European Commission under the 7th FP program. The consortium gathers 13 partners (12 European and 1 Chinese) from academia and industry, a total of 8 countries. Danone Research has been a MetaHit’s partner since the launch of the project in 2008.

The central objective of the MetaHit project is to establish associations between the genes of the human intestinal microbiota and our health and disease. MetaHit targets two disorders of increasing importance in Europe, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and obesity. The incidence of IBD has been increasing constantly during the past decades in Western Europe, and this dramatic trend is now observed in Eastern Europe as well. The global epidemic of obesity is well recognized and imposes a huge and rapidly growing challenge for the public health services.