07/13/2022
By Lindsay McGrail
The Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences, invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Lindsay McGrail titled “The Impact of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus on the Gut Microbiota, Metabolism, Intestinal Integrity, and Inflammation.”
The defense will be held in Coburn 275 and on Zoom at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.
Please contact Lindsay_McGrail@student.uml.edu for Zoom meeting information if you are interested in attending.
The committee will be composed of:
- Kelsey M. Mangano (Chair)
- Shannon L. Kelleher, University of Massachusetts Lowell
- Brenda Geiger, University of Massachusetts Lowell
- Ana Maldonado-Contreras, University of Massachusetts Medical School
A brief abstract is provided below.
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus are bacteria that belong to the phyla Firmicutes and are synergistically responsible for the fermentation of milk in the manufacturing of yogurt, coining them “yogurt starter cultures.” Previous research in healthy and colitis hosts have shown that L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus intake modulates the gut microbiota, upregulates short-chain fatty acid metabolism, and supports intestinal homeostasis. However, research has not been conducted in hosts exhibiting risk-factors for metabolic syndrome (MetS), a public health crisis of metabolic dysfunction that coincides with microbial dysbiosis, inflammation, and deterioration of the intestinal barrier. The aims of this thesis were to identify mechanisms of L. bulgaricus and S. thermophilus that mitigate intestinal dysfunction related to MetS, which would support the development of public health strategies to improve gut health and downstream health effects related to inflammation.