Glycomics of Winery Antimicrobial Yeast

The recent emergence and spread of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) generates serious concerns. AMR related infections result in 25K deaths and €1.5 billion healthcare costs in the EU annually. A promising strategy involves strengthening the intestinal barrier and modulating gut microbiota using prebiotics. Cell walls polysaccharides, mainly from S. cerevisiae, showed great potential for mitigating antibiotic burden. At present however, our understanding of the mechanism of action underlying these biological effects is significantly lacking, mostly due a rudimentary characterization which hinders identification of key molecules and delays the production of effective feed supplements. This primitive characterization is due to the heterogeneous nature of polysaccharides, which have challenged researchers for years. Recent technological breakthroughs now provide analytical toolsets that enable a more comprehensive understanding of the fine structure of large polysaccharides.
Based on the hypothesis that other yeast strains will have the same positive effects than S. cerevisiae, this project will employ cutting edge Glycomics approaches to unravel mannan and glucan structures from the most widely used non-saccharomyces yeast strains in the wine industry, and subsequently evaluate their effectiveness, isolated and in combination, to reveal key mechanistic insights.
The project will be carried out in The Barile Lab at the UC-Davis (USA), an internationally recognized center with experience in Glycomics applied to Food Science, and in the CSIC (Spain), one of the most productive research institution in EU.
The knowledge gained by the applicant in Glycomics for Food Science will be transferred to the EU by implementing a European Reference Center in this field at CSIC (Madrid, Spain). The objectives proposed, will enable the applicant to become an expert in glycomics and strengthen his professional independence.
The proposed research is in line with the H2020 objectives.