As a continuation and intensification of the successful research collaboration between researchers at Biomolecular Medicine at Imperial College London (ICL) and Nestlé Research Centre in the field of “nutritional metabonomics”, the Nestlé-ICL alliance is led by Prof. Jeremy Nicholson and started in June 2009 with the recruitment of a lecturer for 5 years (Dr. Marc-Emmanuel Dumas). The alliance also includes support for 2 postdoctoral research associates and 4 PhD students.

The overall goal of this alliance is to generate data to construct predictive statistical models of system behavior (involving physiologic, metabolic, transcriptomic and gut microbial interactions) in an evolving time frame, which can be tested at population scale for enhanced and optimized nutritional solutions to combat obesity. This is achieved by using a combination of non-clinical models and human studies to engender new knowledge about the mechanisms by which the gut microbiota influence the host metabolism and to ultimately provide new insights of large use in the field of human nutrition.

Team members:

• Prof. Jeremy Nicholson (PI, strategic committee member)
• Prof. Elaine Holmes (strategic committee member)
• Prof. John Lindon (strategic committee member)
• Prof Nigel Gooderham (scientific committee member)
• Dr. Marc-Emmanuel Dumas (lecturer, coordinator, scientific committee member)
• Dr. Sandrine P. Claus (visiting lecturer)
• Dr. Anthony Dona (postdoc)
• Ms Claire Boulange (PhD student) 
• Ms Magali Sarafian (PhD student)

Alumni:

• Dr Will Edmands
  
• Dr. Silke Heinzmann
• Dr. Claire Merrifield
  
• Dr. Selena Richards
• Dr. Renaud Mestdagh
• Ms Oceane Carle

Key Recent Publications 

Merrifield CA; Lewis MC; Claus SP; Pearce JT; Cloarec O; Duncker S; Heinzmann SS; Dumas M; Kochhar S; Rezzi S; Mercenier A; Nicholson JK; Bailey M; Holmes E. 2012. Weaning diet induces sustained metabolic phenotype shift in the pig and influences host response to Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818. Gut. DOI.

Mestdagh R; Dumas ME; Rezzi S; Kochhar S; Holmes E; Claus SP; Nicholson JK. 2012 Gut microbiota modulate the metabolism of brown adipose tissue in mice. J Proteome Res. 11:620-630. DOI.

Rezzonico E; Mestdagh R; Delley M; Combremont S; Dumas ME; Holmes E; Nicholson J; Bibiloni R. 2011. Bacterial adaptation to the gut environment favors successful colonization: Microbial and metabolomic characterization of a simplified microbiota mouse model. Gut Microbes. 2.

Merrifield CA; Lewis M; Claus SP; Beckonert OP; Dumas ME; Duncker S; Kochhar S; Rezzi S; Lindon JC; Bailey M; Holmes E; Nicholson JKHolmes E; Nicholson JK. 2012 A metabolic system-wide characterisation of the pig: a model for human physiology. Mol Biosyst. 7:2577-2588. DOI.

Dumas ME. The microbial-mammalian metabolic axis: beyond simple metabolism. Cell Metabolism 2011;13(5):489-90.

Claus SP, Ellero S, Berger B, Krause L,  Bruttin A , Molina A, Paris A, Want E, De Waziers I, Cloarec O, Richards S, Wang Y, Dumas ME, Ross A, Rezzi S, Kochhar S Van Bladeren P, Lindon J, Holmes E, Nicholson JK. Colonization-induced host-gut microbial metabolic interaction. mBio 2011, pii: e00271-10. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00271-10.

Heinzmann SS, Brown IJ, Chan Q, Bictash M, Dumas ME, Kochhar S, Stamler J, Holmes E, Elliott P, Nicholson JK. Metabolic profiling strategy for discovery of nutritional biomarkers: proline betaine as a marker of citrus consumption. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010; 92:436-443.

Claus SP, Tsang TM, Wang Y, Cloarec O, Skordi E, Martin FP, Rezzi S, Ross A, Kochhar S, Holmes E and others. Systemic multicompartmental effects of the gut microbiome on mouse metabolic phenotypes. Mol Syst Biol 2008; 4:219.

Martin FP, Dumas ME, Wang Y, Legido-Quigley C, Yap IK, Tang H, Zirah S, Murphy GM, Cloarec O, Lindon JC and others. A top-down systems biology view of microbiome-mammalian metabolic interactions in a mouse model. Mol Syst Biol 2007; 3:112.