Phages can help with establishing a healthy microbiological flora in the gut of newborns and oral administration can be a treatment in some babies. The phages needs to be protected from stomach digestion. Understanding how milk and milk components can help develop this treatment. 

The gut microbiome contains trillions of bacteria and, at least, as many phages (viruses infecting bacteria). 
Oral phage administration is a new way of improving gut health in newborn infants, especially at premature or disease-related conditions, as the phages can inactivate problematic bacteria and help to (re)establish a healthy gut microbiota. Mother’s milk is the natural diet for newborn babies, and also contains phages, and supports gut maturation. New insights suggest that phages are mainly associated with the milk fat fraction, and specifically the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM).

In the project, the aim is to study protection of phages by milk and milk components for gastric survival to the infant gut via in vitro and in vivo studies. The MSc project will be part of the in vitro studies and involve working with mixes of phages and milk/milk components from Arla Foods Ingredients, subject those to in vitro simulations of infant gastric and intestinal digestion and characterize the digests and if phages are protected. The samples we make will furthermore be tested at KU-SUND.

The study will/can involve methods including microbiological work with phages, fractionation of milk, in vitro digestion studies with enzymes, OPA assay, SDS-PAGE and LC-ESI/MS of compositions of milk fractions, components and digests.