The gut microbiota consists of the trillions of microbes that reside in the gastrointestinal tract of mammals, and has a vast impact on host physiology and metabolism. The research program I intend to pursue will be dedicated to the investigation of the role and therapeutic potential of the gut microbiota in the progression of non-gastrointestinal cancers and associated cachexia. Cancer cachexia refers to the metabolic alterations linked to cancer progression and it leads to weight loss of the patients, it affects up to 50% of cancer patients, causing mortality in 20% of them. Studying the gut microbiota as a therapeutic target constitutes an innovative approach to this pathology.

My project relies in the understanding of the mechanismes underlying the crosstalk between the host and the gut microbes in the context of cancer and cachexia. Specifically, in collaboration with several colleagues, I combine next-generation sequencing, metabolomics and molecular profiling of the host, to gain in-depth insight regarding the impact of cancer and cachexia on the composition of the gut microbiota and, reciprocally, the effect of prebiotics and probiotics on the pathological phenotype. My endeavour aims to identify pathways that are potentially involved in these gut microbiota-host interactions, using mouse models and through pilot clinical trials. As a Postdoctoral Researcher, I am also involved in several multidisciplinary and collaborative projects at the Université catholique de Louvain and with several teams outside Belgium.

I spent a year in the Food Sciences and Technology Department, at the UNL. Together with Dr Ramer-Tait and Dr Walter, we investigated the mechanisms involved in the beneficial effects of various resistant starches in obesity. I really appreciated my stay at the Gut Function Initiative. It was very inspiring and scientifically fruitful.

My PhD thesis was dedicated to the discovery of novel and innovative nutrition-related approaches to interfere with cancer progression and associated cachexia.Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths (approximately 13% of all deaths) in 2008. Up to 50% of cancer patients suffer from a progressive atrophy of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle, called cachexia, resulting in weight loss, a reduced quality of life, and a shortened survival time. Interestingly, the gut microbiota is currently proposed as a key factor in several metabolic and inflammatory diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and allergies. These diseases have been associated in humans with alteration of gut microbiota composition. During my PhD, we showed that the composition of the gut microbiota is altered in cancer cachexia and that modulation of this gut microbiota, thought the administration of nutrients or bacteria, can reduce cancer progression and/or associated cachexia in a mouse model of leukemia. Furthermore, we explored the molecular pathways by which nutrition-induced changes of the gut microbiota composition could influences cancer progression, notably through the propionate-GPR43 pathway.