Colon-on-a-plate^®

High-throughput gut simulation of colonic fermentation to uncover product and microbiome interactions

In Q2 2021, ProDigest launched the Colon-on-a-plate^® technology, which is a high-throughput biorelevant in vitro simulation of the physiology and microbiology of the colon. This robust screening technology is not limited to comparing the impact of tens of test product on the microbiome, but also offers insight into the factors influencing the response of the microbiome towards these products. These factors include - but are not limited to - inter individual variability, disease status, mucosal compartment, impact of pathogens, use of antibiotics and differences in gastrointestinal physiology, potentially leading to hundreds of tests in parallel. The implementation of a robust statistical approach provides a detailed insight on the interplay between test products and the gut microbiota, reducing consumables and budget requirements.

From microbiome community composition analysis to SCFA and fermentation metabolite production: Easy accessible gastrointestinal endpoints

Colon-on-a-plate^® has been optimized to perform a short-term simulation, up to 48 hours. Despite the small volumes of the simulation, multiple readouts will provide insights in relative and absolute changes in microbial community composition, microbial fermentation activity and impact on the microbiome-host interactions using a variety of human cell assays.

Coupling of the gastrointestinal effects and gut metabolomics data

Furthermore, coupling Colon-on-a-plate^® with the MetaKey^® platform enables rapid and high-throughput metabolic fingerprinting using LA-REIMS and subsequent identification and quantification of metabolic differences using LC-HRMS in a cost effective manner.

Research endpoints

Microbial composition analysis

qPCR panels and bespoken strain specific qPCR-detection (e.g. to quantify your LBP or probiotic)
16S rRNA gene profiling
Shotgun Sequencing
Flow cytometry

Microbial activity analysis: