PolyU has received a donation of HK$2 million from Hong Kong Yakult Co. Ltd. to establish the world’s first Joint Research Laboratory for Probiotics and Prebiotics in Human Health. The Laboratory will conduct innovative research and human studies to provide scientific evidence to support the benefits and safety of probiotics and prebiotics.

The Joint Research Laboratory is under the PolyU Research Institute for Future Food (RiFood), which was newly established in May 2021. Dr Wong Ka-hing, Director of RiFood, shared in a media briefing that the Joint Research Laboratory will leverage PolyU’s strengths and expertise in food safety and technology to facilitate impactful interdisciplinary research in probiotics and prebiotics to improve human health. With the Simulator of Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem instrument, PolyU’s researchers will be able to develop new solutions, such as medicines and supplements, for preventing and managing diseases with probiotics.

Dr William Tai Chi-shing, Executive Director of the Joint Lab, stated that the Laboratory would focus on several areas, namely gut health, brain health, women’s health, and eczema. He further shared that the team has been working on how different probiotics and prebiotics cure inflammatory bowel disease with mice. The preliminary results imply that probiotics can reduce some inflammatory factors almost by half and restore the impaired intestinal structure.

To learn more about PolyU’s research direction on probiotics and prebiotics, please have a look at the following media reports:

RTHK
Topick
Sky Post
Urbanlife Health
HK01