SFB 852:  Nutrition and Intestinal Microbiota - Host Interaction in the Pig

Subject Area Medicine
Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
Term from 2010 to 2014
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 92137290
 

Project Description

The scientific aim of the Collaborative Research Centre is to characterise the influence of nutritional factors on the function of the intestine and on animal health in the pig using innovative, experimental, analytical and bioinformatic methods. In the first funding period, research efforts are focussed on feed additives and, in particular, on mechanistic studies on the effects of probiotics as well as the trace mineral zinc.
The integrative concept of the Collaborative Research Centre enables the characterisation of the intestinal microbiota and its metabolic activity, the reaction of the host organism and the interactions between both. This is reflected in two project areas of the Collaborative Research Centre, which examine the intestinal microbiota and physiological and pathophysiological processes in the gastrointestinal tract. The research programme of the Collaborative Research Centre consists of four central project areas, whose cross-disciplinary functions are organisational, analytical, experimental and the promotion of young researchers in an integrated Research Training Group.
The project areas build on findings obtained by the Research Unit 438 (Integrative Analysis of Probiotics in the Pig), which was funded by the DFG for a period of over six years, and further this knowledge in specific regard to the functional aspects of the effects of nutritional factors (“mode of action”). The projects contribute substantially to the understanding of the biology of nutrition in the pig, and provide new insights into the field of nutrition-host-interactions as well as into their modulations.
DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

Applicant Institution Freie Universität Berlin
Participating University Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Technische Universität Berlin
Participating Institution Deutsches Institut für Ernährungsforschung Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE); Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR)
Abteilung 4: Biologische Sicherheit
Fachgruppe Diagnostik, Genetik und Erregercharakterisierung
; Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie (MPI-MP)
Spokesperson Professor Dr. Jürgen Zentek