Ramya Balasubramanian

Project Title: Understanding the impact of fermented foods on gut brain axis

Overview: Ramya hails from the southern region of India and belongs to a second generational line of agriculturists. She is working on understanding the impact of fermented foods on the microbiome gut brain axis. The microbiome gut brain axis is a bidirectional communication network between the brain and the gut. It is influenced by various environmental and lifestyle based factors. The past decade has revealed the impact of processed food and the negative associations it can have on the neurological and metabolic makeup of an organism. This would be highly interesting as the food we eat could be one of the key factors that shape our mood, behaviour and development. It also possesses the ability to impact the development of future generation and greatly influence vulnerable sections of the society. Ramya intends to find the effect of the age old practise of fermented foods and how such pre-processing of fermented foods could provide beneficial effects to the consumer. This is done by sourcing superfoods from different cultures, understanding the significance of the cultural processing involved in food preparation and to integrate such practises into foods that can be accessed by a greater demographic. Ramya aims to study the impact of such food in pre-clinical animal models so as to observe if there are viable benefits that can warrant further investigation. Ramya is a trained in Pharmacology and toxicology with a focus on neuroscience. She intendeds to study the effect of diet not only on the gut microbiome but also on the neurological makeup of the host. Ramya intends to understand techniques involved in assessing the composition of the human gut microbiome and associated computational techniques at Teagasc so as to join the dots and understand its influence on the brain.

Programme Area: Food Biosciences

Supervisors: Teagasc Supervisor : Dr. Paul. D. Cotter, Academic Supervisor : Dr. John. F. Cryan

Location: Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork

Funding Source: Teagasc