Group photo at the "Intestinal Flora and Health" forum

The "Intestinal Flora and Health" forum, initiated by the Intestinal Flora Academic Subgroup of the Biophysical Society of China (BSC), was held on July 26, during the 19th Chinese Biophysics Congress in Hefei city, East China's Anhui province.

Focusing on the progress of the latest international research in the field of intestinal flora and health and diseases, the forum was presided over by Professor Liu Shuangjiang, chairman of the subgroup, Professor Fang Zhongze, deputy secretary-general, and Vice-Chairman Lan Canhui.

Professor Duan Liping from Peking University Third Hospital discussed the various potential clinical applications and mechanisms of berberine, and introduced that by regulating intestinal flora, berberine can intervene and treat neurological and mental diseases, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, digestive system diseases, tumor diseases and more.

Xu Jian, researcher of the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), gave a lecture titled "Function-guided single-cell analysis of human microbiome".

He explained that the single-cell center cannot directly detect the metabolic function of the human symbiotic flora through traditional methods, such as metagenome sequencing, as well as discussing the high cost of time and consumables, and the limited application of flora analysis in precision medicine research and clinical practice.

Based on this, he overcame many key technical difficulties and developed the first system, RACS-Seq, to realize the instrumentation of the complete detection, sorting, sequencing library construction and cultivation of the single-cell metabolic function of the bacterial colony.

Researcher Liu Ruixin from Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, shared her research on intestinal flora, obesity, and metabolic regulation. She and her team used the metagenomics and metabolomics studies of the Chinese adolescent obesity cohort to describe the diversity of gut microbiota and the species-level characteristics of obese people.

Wang Wei, an assistant researcher at the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, talked about exploring the distribution, growth, division, and metabolic activity changes of bacteria in the complex microstructure of the intestine, through a new method of microbiota imaging.

Professor Zhu Shu, from the University of Science and Technology of China, introduced a number of recent research results of his team, including how the intestinal innate immune system recognizes intestinal pathogenic microorganisms and symbiotic microorganisms, and how intestinal helper T cells and their secreted cytokines mediate immune responses against intestinal microorganisms, in a report entitled Intestinal immune responses toward microbes in health and diseases.

Ma Yingfei, researcher of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the CAS, introduced the research progress of their team in the intestinal phage culture group. This study obtained many human intestinal phages for the first time, and revealed the novelty of these phages through analysis, laying the foundation for further research on the role of intestinal phages in the human intestine.

The BSC Intestinal Flora Academic Subgroup was established in May 2021, and currently has more than 1,000 registered members.