Functional food ingredients and microbiome research materials

Food Science

Advancing Food as Medicine Through Structure-Guided Precision Microbiome Modulation

The Yao Lab (Functional Food & Microbiome Lab)

At the Yao Lab, we investigate how structurally complex dietary fibers derived from sustainable food sources shape gut microbial communities, carbohydrate-active enzymes, fermentation metabolites, and host health. Our research aims to advance Food as Medicine through structure-guided precision microbiome modulation by:

  1. Developing innovative technologies to extract, modify, and valorize bioactive dietary fibers from agro-industrial byproducts as next-generation functional food ingredients.
  2. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which dietary fiber structures govern gut microbial ecology, community assembly, and metabolic interactions, with complex carbohydrate structures serving as key ecological drivers.
  3. Identifying microbial species, enzymes, and metabolites involved in dietary fiber utilization to establish rational synbiotic strategies for precision nutrition and microbiome-targeted health interventions.
Carbohydrate structure and function diagram
Core focus Carbohydrate structure-function relationships
Gut microbiome ecology and genomics illustration
Biological system Gut microbial ecology and genomics
Dietary fiber structure, gut microbiome fermentation, SCFA production, metabolism, and immune homeostasis
Translation Functional prebiotic fibers for precision nutrition

Yao Lab at Rutgers

Department of Food Science Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Food Science and Nutritional Sciences Bldg. West Room 403, 65 Dudley RD, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8525 tianming.yao@rutgers.edu

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