1. Athletic performance
Are the secrets to endurance and elite sporting performance really hidden within the microbiome of Lionel Messi’s intestines?
Interest in the relationship between the gut microbiome and athletic performance, and the potential for modulating the microbiota with prebiotics and probiotics to enhance performance, continues to grow. Some professional sports teams are already embracing microbiome modulation as a strategy to support athlete health and performance.
A 2014 study by scientists at University College Cork in Ireland is widely credited with helping to spark interest in this area. The researchers found that the gut microbiomes of professional Irish rugby players were significantly more diverse than those of non-athletes. What’s more, the rugby players had higher proportions of Akkermansia compared to non-athletes with high BMI.
A follow-up study, conducted in collaboration with scientists at Imperial College London and publishedin Gut, found that the differences between athletes and sedentary individuals are “even more evident at the functional or metabolic level.”
As the science has progressed, it has become clear that probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics may support athletes through multiple mechanisms, including immune modulation to reduce the incidence and severity of upper respiratory tract infections, fewer sick days and greater training consistency, effects mediated through the gut-muscle axis, improved nutrient absorption (including minerals and protein), and enhanced mental performance through impacts on cognitive function, mood, and even motivation to exercise.
Another area attracting considerable interest is whether the microbiomes of elite athletes can be mined for novel probiotic strains with performance-enhancing potential.
Among the most prominent companies pursuing this approach are U.S.-based Fitbiomics and Taiwan’s Synbio Tech. Fitbiomics, a spinout from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, has focused on Veillonella atypica (which has been shown to increase in abundance in marathon runners after races) as well as selected Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains to support recovery, endurance, digestion, metabolism, and immune function.
Synbio Tech, meanwhile, has developed and commercialized TWK10, a strain of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum originally isolated from kimchi.
These companies are not alone. For example, researchers in Taiwan isolated Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum Olympic No. 1 (OLP-01) and Lactobacillus salivarius subsp. salicinius (SA-03) from the women’s 48 kg weightlifting gold medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games.
2. Healthspan and Longevity
With the global longevity and anti-aging supplements market already valued at $8-10 billion, interest in living better for longer is only expected to increase. While much attention has focused on ingredients such as nicotinamide riboside and urolithin A, a growing body of evidence is exploring how the microbiota and microbiome of exceptionally long-lived individuals may hold clues to healthy aging and longevity.
Multiple studies have reported that the distinctive gut microbial composition observed in centenarians may contribute to longevity and that the microbiomes of many long-lived individuals tend to exhibit a more youthful profile.
Indeed, analysis of the microbiome of Maria Branyas, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 117, revealed a profile resembling that of a much younger adult, with a higher abundance of beneficial Bifidobacterium and lower levels of pro-inflammatory Clostridium species. Researchers linked these findings to her daily consumption of yogurt and adherence to a Mediterranean diet (Cell Reports Medicine, 2025).
Although these findings demonstrate correlation rather than causation, researchers are already exploring the microbiomes of centenarians as a source of potential probiotic candidates to promote healthspan. In 2021, researchers from Nanchang University reported that a combination of four strains isolated from a centenarian reduced intestinal and brain inflammation while improving memory and motor function in aging mice.
The probiotic combination, isolated from fecal samples obtained from seven centenarians living in the Centenarian Village in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, China, was also associated with increased expression of molecules involved in maintaining intestinal barrier integrity and reducing gut permeability.
More recently, a single probiotic strain, Limosilactobacillus reuteri A21041, isolated from the feces of a healthy centenarian from Beihai City, China, was reported to increase the lifespan of C. elegans worms by 20%, with postbiotic metabolites linked to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
The opportunity extends beyond probiotics and postbiotics. Prebiotics are also being investigated as potential tools to support healthy aging. Because bifidobacterial populations tend to decline with age, scientists are exploring whether the bifidogenic effects of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) may benefit older adults.
A study conducted by Stanford University and Abbott Nutrition found that supplementation with the HMO 2′-fucosyllactose increased Bifidobacterium abundance in older adults and improved a range of metabolic markers.
3. Weight Management
“Many hallmarks are shared between obesity and aging, one of which is gut microbial dysbiosis,” wrote scientists from McGill University in a May 2024 review published in Microbiome Research Reports.
More established than the athletic performance and longevity fields, research linking the gut microbiota to obesity dates back to 2006, when Jeffrey Gordon and colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis reported that the gut microbial composition differed between obese and lean individuals. They also found that weight loss was associated with a shift in the microbiota toward a profile resembling that of lean individuals, suggesting that obesity has a microbial component.
A 2013 paper in Science, also led by Professor Gordon, demonstrated that transplanting gut bacteria from obese humans into germ-free mice resulted in greater weight gain and fat accumulation than transplantation of gut bacteria from lean donors.
More recently, rat study from scientists at the University of Georgia, Athens found that transplanting microbiota from lean donors in combination with the prebiotic inulin produced beneficial shifts in the microbiota, even when the animals continued consuming a high-fat Western-style diet.
These findings have prompted researchers to investigate whether probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics can help support weight management, and commercial products targeting this opportunity are now widely available.
Among probiotics, candidates range from traditional Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains to next-generation probiotics such as Dysosmobacter welbionis J115T and Hafnia alvei HA4597. However, the current standout in both probiotic and postbiotic research for weight management is Akkermansia muciniphila.
A Gram-negative, anaerobic bacterium that colonizes the gut during the first year of life, A. muciniphila reportedly accounts for roughly 3% of the human gut microbiota. Its abundance within the intestinal mucus layer has been shown to be inversely associated with BMI, type 1 diabetes, and inflammatory bowel disease.
Akkermansia produces metabolites that nourish intestinal cells involved in maintaining the mucus layer, helping support barrier integrity and regulating gut permeability and low-grade inflammation.
In 2021, Korean researchers reported that A. muciniphila may secrete a protein capable of stimulating a “modest increase of circulating GLP-1 just after an oral glucose challenge.”
“Over the past decade, the gut microbiota has emerged as a central regulator of metabolic health, shaping host physiology through its influence on nutrient metabolism, immune function, and inflammatory signaling,” wrote scientists in a 2026 review published in Nutrients.
“...the gut microbiota represents not merely a biomarker of metabolic dysfunction, but an active participant in disease pathogenesis and, importantly, a modifiable therapeutic target,” they added. “Despite growing interest in microbiota-targeted interventions, important limitations in the current evidence base remain. In this evolving landscape, emerging approaches, including postbiotics and next-generation probiotics with defined functional properties, offer promising avenues for overcoming current limitations.”
4. Bioremediation
The final opportunity centers on the use of microbiome modulators to reduce the accumulation of environmental pollutants, including PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often referred to as “forever chemicals”), microplastics, and heavy metals. Interest in this field has grown rapidly in recent years.
For example, scientists from the University of Cambridge have reported that certain gut bacteria can absorb toxic PFAS compounds.
“Given the scale of the problem of PFAS ‘forever chemicals,’ particularly their effects on human health, it’s concerning that so little is being done to remove these compounds from our bodies,” said Dr. Kiran Patil of the University of Cambridge’s MRC Toxicology Unit and co-founder of Cambiotics, a startup developing probiotics for PFAS removal.
“We found that certain species of human gut bacteria have a remarkably high capacity to absorb PFAS from their environment across a range of concentrations and store them in aggregates within their cells. Due to this aggregation, the bacteria themselves appear protected from the toxic effects.”
Earlier this year, Italy-based Probiotical published data indicating that Lactiplantibacillus plantarum LP14, Lactobacillus crispatus LCR04, and Lactobacillus acidophilus LA12 may help detoxify cadmium, chromium, mercury, and lead in the gastrointestinal tract while reducing intestinal damage caused by heavy-metal exposure.
Dr. Marco Pane, Chief Science Officer at Probiotical Research and lead author of the study, said the findings demonstrate that the single-strain lactobacilli L. plantarum LP14, L. acidophilus LA02, and L. crispatus LCR04, selected through a transit-realistic screening pipeline, can sequester heavy metals in the colon and restore epithelial barrier integrity ex vivo.
“The significance is broader than the strains,” said Dr. Pane. “Heavy-metal exposure is a chronic public health challenge that source control alone cannot solve at the population level. Intestinal bioremediation is the missing piece of the food-safety chain. We now have the scientific basis to advance it toward clinical application.”
China-based Bluepha is also notable for its work exploring probiotics to address microplastic exposure. Writing in Frontiers in Microbiology, the company’s scientists reported that Lacticaseibacillus paracasei DT66 and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DT88 increased polystyrene excretion by 34% and reduced residual polystyrene particles in the intestine by 67%. In addition, L. plantarum DT88 reduced polystyrene-induced intestinal inflammation.
Writing in a 2025 systematic review published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, Professor Stan Kubow of McGill University and his co-authors concluded:
“The protective roles of prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics against environmental pollutant toxicities demonstrated in animal studies may hold translational promise for human health. In particular, individuals with occupational exposures (e.g., industrial employees and agricultural workers) or those living in highly polluted environments may benefit from microbiota-targeted interventions. These strategies could potentially mitigate pollutant-induced oxidative stress, inflammation, and systemic toxicity.
While human trials are needed to confirm efficacy and safety, the evidence presented in this review provides a compelling rationale for exploring dietary microbiota modulation as a preventive or adjunctive approach in populations at heightened risk of environmental toxicity."
