The MICRO4FOOD lab at the NOI Techpark is urgently looking for volunteers willing to be part of a study carried out by Professors Marco Gobbetti and Raffaella Di Cagno and their research team. The study will start on the 30 of October and will take 41 days.

Here is how the collaboration works. During this period, participants have to take only controlled doses of gluten (as capsules or bread slices) that the research team will indicate, and a daily dose of probiotics (or placebo) supplied as capsules. Participants will then have to supply - collection point will be at the NOI TechPark - fecal and urine samples every 2-3 days.

Wanted are men and women between 18 and 60 years of age who didn’t consume probiotics and prebiotics in the form of pharmaceutical preparations on a regular basis within the 3 months prior to recruitment. Nor must they have taken antibiotics within the 3 months prior to recruitment. They must have the EU digital COVID certificate (i.e. COVID-19 green pass) and be healthy people without any evidence of intestinal diseases, and other pathologies (type I or type II diabetes, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, rheumatoid arthritis, allergies). Finally, they must not be pregnant and breastfeeding and must have an omnivorous or vegetarian diet consumption.

“The Lab team will arrange an individual meeting with participants in order to supply needed materials - such as probiotic, gluten capsules, plastics for sampling - and instructions”, says Andrea Polo, a researcher at the MICRO4Food Lab, “Participants will have to strictly respect the controlled intake of gluten and probiotic or placebo, and the calendar for samples collection and delivery. Last but not least, participants will also receive a small allowance (100 euro) as a sort of reimbursement”.

All people interested in joining the project or having more information can contact the researcher Andrea Polo andrea.polo@unibz.it.

(zil)