Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, NARO

Functional Biomolecules Research Unit

Stress in modern society has been implicated as a cause or contributing factor in various diseases and decreases in QOL. Extension of healthy life expectancy and reduction of health disparities by stress reduction are urgent issues. Similarly, it is important to boost consumption with high value-added animal products to promote domestic animal and dairy industries and local food industry. It is known that brain, gut and skin are mutually interacting via nervous and endocrine system. Physiological stress is transmitted to gut and skin, causes and/or exacerbates bowel and skin disorders. On the contrary, dysfunction and inflammation of gut and skin are recognized by brain and exacerbate stress symptoms. Further, gut microbiota affects the interaction of gut, brain and skin through their metabolites and gut epithelial cells, thus called microbiota-gut-brain-skin axis. In this Unit, we analyze the interaction between gut metabolites and gut mictobiota, and develop new technologies to evaluate health benefit of animal products using microbiota-gut-brain-skin axis. Using the evaluation system and genome information of dairy lactic acid bacteria, we elucidate functional components of dairy products and lactic acid bacteria that are valuable for improving QOL, and develop technologies to add high-value to animal products.



Unit Leader

Hiromi KIMOTO
Research Topic: Probiotics, Fermentation


Unit Members

Name
Position
Research Topic
Yoshiharu TAKAYAMA Principal Researcher Functional analysis of lactoferrin and Its receptor
Naoko MORIYA Senior Researcher Milk processing aptitude and functional role of lactic acid bacteria
Reiji AOKI Senior Researcher Metabolites of aromatic amino acids and immune function
Yasuhiro OMATA Research Fellow Gut-brain axis in chronic social defeat stress

Centers・Institutes