The online CCC spring symposium was attended by approximately 150 researchers and scientists from companies and universities. During the morning session PhDs of the CarboBiotics program, and in the afternoon PhDs from the CarboBased program presented and discussed their most recent research outcomes.
In the morning dr. Ruud Albers, founder and CEO of Nutrileads gave an interesting lecture with the title: ‘Development of an affordable, sustainable and efficacious plant-based immunomodulatory food ingredient from pectic polysaccharides’. Dr. Ruud Albers explained that the RG-I segment from pectin has a dual mode of action. On one hand it has a direct effect on the immune surveillance, stimulates phagocytosis, activates monocytes, and enhances cytokine production in vitro. On the other hand, RG-I is having an indirect effect as it is fermented by the gut bacteria, modulates relative abundance of microbiota and yields anti-inflammatory metabolites.
After the first key-note presentation 10 PhDs from the 5 projects of the CarboBiotics CCC-NWO research program presented their work about the positive effects of prebiotic carbohydrates on antibiotics, and the microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract.
To close the first half of the day the final report of “CarboKinetics, intestinal carbohydrate fermentation dynamics and its immunological modulation” was presented by dr. Colja Laane, Chair of the Supervisory Board of CCC and the first copy of the report was offered to prof. Ilja Arts, Board Member NWO Domain Sciences (ENW). The report is available on the CCC website!
The second key-note speaker of the day was dr. Ed de Jong, VP Development at Avantium Technologies with the presentation titled: ‘Availability and use of carbohydrates in the Biobased Economy’. From dr. Ed de Jong we have learned that circular economy is the solution for our major environmental problems. At Avantium, next generation biopolymers derived from sugars and other carbohydrates have been developed. These biopolymers have even better characteristics than PET. They can be re-used many times, they are fully recyclable, bio-based and bio-degradable in nature.
Following the second key-note presentation 4 PhDs of the 9 projects from the CarboBased CCC research program showed their results on the development of carbohydrate based bioproducts and biomaterials.
At the end of the day, the Rudy Rabbinge Award was offered to the best speaker. The jury consisting of dr. Bianca Martens, dr. Emanuel Canfora and dr. Colja Laane had a difficult task to decide who will win the award for the best online presentation. We thank the jury and appreciate their effort in evaluating the presentations!
Prof. Rudy Rabbinge virtually handed over the award for the best online presentation to Marina Fassarella and Lars Vliex. Congratulations to both of them!
We look back at a successful symposium and looking forward to the autumn conference in November 2021, which we hope will be an in-person symposium again.
