Although Chunli’s project was not funded by CCC, she has been supervised by Paul de Vos and collaborated closely together with many CCC partners.
In her thesis, the effects of several (human milk oligosaccharides) hMO and (non-digestible carbohydrates) NDC molecules on the intestine epithelial barrier functions and the effects on gut pathogen infections, gut commensal bacterium, as well as effects on gut microbiota were investigated. They have demonstrated structure-dependent effects of hMOs and NDCs on modulating the intestine epithelial glycocalyx development, the secretory functions of goblet cells, gut pathogen adhesion, and gut microbiota fermentation.
