7th Annual Probiotic Symposium to Focus on

Probiotics: Current Perspectives and Controversies

Awareness of the major health effects of the gastrointestinal microbiota has exploded in recent years. Inhabited by more than 100 trillion microorganisms, the human gastrointestinal tract is considered the most complex ecosystem on the planet. Human health is characterized by a rich, harmonious symbiotic relationship between host and microbiota. Disruptions of the microbiota, termed dysbiosis, have long been associated with gastrointestinal and genitourinary disease. Increasing understanding of ways in which the microbiota modulates immune responses, gut barrier function, inflammation, and neurotransmitter synthesis is raising awareness of the role of gut dysbiosis in autoimmune disorders, allergies, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and neuropsychiatric disturbances.

The 7th Annual Probiotic Symposium will be sponsored by the Institute for Medical Studies, an ACCME-accredited provider of CME for physicians, and will be approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.

The program will address the educational needs of clinicians who wish to better understand current perspectives on research of the human microbiota in health and disease and the use of probiotics to maintain and restore health. An acclaimed faculty of experts will deliver two days of authoritative, clinically relevant lectures on a spectrum of topics relating to optimizing gastrointestinal health. The symposium offers the opportunity to hear research and clinical experience presented firsthand and interact with experts in this important clinical field.

The CME symposium will be preceded by a non-CME workshop on the afternoon of October 24. This workshop will review practical, clinically relevant aspects of probiotic use, laboratory evaluation of gastrointestinal disorders, and treatment of pathogenic gastrointestinal and systemic biofilms. Stephen Olmstead, MD, chief science officer at ProThera and Klaire Labs, and David Quig, PhD, vice president, scientific support for Doctor’s Data Inc., will present the presymposium workshop on probiotic use for a variety of gastrointestinal and systemic indications. Olmstead’s current research focuses on the use of enzymes and chelating agents to disrupt pathogenic GI biofilm and pre- and probiotics to restore gut microbial balance. He will give a workshop on the practical aspects of selecting and dosing prebiotics and probiotics for a variety of gastrointestinal and systemic disorders. He will present a second workshop on the therapeutic approach to disrupting pathogenic gut and systemic biofilms with an emphasis on candidiasis sensitivity syndrome. Quig has performed and published extensive research pertaining to nutrition and chronic diseases. He regularly lectures at international and national biomedical conferences. Quig will give a clinically relevant workshop on the use of laboratory testing to evaluate gastrointestinal disorders.

The CME portion of the symposium will be held on October 25 and 26. Speakers and their topics include:

Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD

, is an internist, molecular biochemist, clinical pathologist, and diagnostician. He is lab director of ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies LLC. Jaffe is known for his work in applying first principles of biology to clarify the causal mechanisms of good and ill health. He has published over 100 articles and invited reviews. Jaffe will review the current understanding and research on the human microbiome, the totality of microorganisms residing on and in the human body, their genetic elements (genomes), and their interactions with their host. He will explore the microbiome’s role in epigenetics and the concept of metagenomics. He will discuss specific biomarkers that may be used to evaluate the human microbiome.

Stig Bengmark, MD, PhD

, chief of surgery for over 20 years at Lund University Hospital in Sweden and now visiting professor at University College London, will present a lecture intriguingly titled “Dirty Cells & Leaking Membrane – a Mother of Disease.” Bengmark’s research interest in probiotics began in 1986 when he and colleagues reviewed the incidence of infections in their patients undergoing liver resection and found that all the postoperative infections occurred in those treated with antibiotics and no infections developed in patients who had not received antibiotics. Bengmark’s decades of research and observation on gut dysbiosis and its relationship to outcomes in the acute care setting promises to be highly enlightening. He has been a pioneer in the use of prebiotics and probiotics for chronic liver disease, decreasing the incidence of infections in patients undergoing surgery for intraabdominal malignancies, and reducing infection, intensive care unit days, need for mechanical ventilation, and mortality in patients with severe multiple trauma.

Charalabos Pothoulakis, MD

, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the UCLA Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, is the world’s authority on the use of Saccharomyces boulardii for Clostridium difficile–associated disease. He will present the current understanding of how S. boulardii exerts beneficial effect in C. difficile-associated disease, highlighting prevention of inhibitory κBα degradation. He will outline ongoing research on the multiple beneficial effects of S. boulardii by reducing production of proinflammatory cytokines.

Michael

Cabana

,

MD, MPH

, is professor of pediatrics, epidemiology and biostatistics and chief of the Division of General Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Cabana will cover the use of pre- and probiotics in infancy and childhood. He has a longstanding interest in the use of probiotics for the prevention of asthma in childhood. Cabana is the principal investigator for the NIH/NCCAM study Probiotic Outcomes on Enteric Microflora (POEM) and for the NIH/NHLBI Trial of Infant Probiotic Supplementation on Developing Asthma.

Gerard E. Mullin, MD

, associate professor of medicine and director of Integrative Nutrition Services at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Hospital, will discuss the current state of knowledge on the fascinating role of the gastrointestinal microbiota on weight and metabolism. He will review the role of gut dysbiosis in obesity and metabolic syndrome. Mullin will highlight some of the controversies in the area and discuss conflicting research findings. He will discuss the limited data on the use of probiotics and prebiotics to maintain normal body weight, enhance weight loss, and treat metabolic syndrome. Mullin will share his erudite perspective on how research in this exciting area is likely to progress over the coming years.

Maria Oliva-Hemker, MD

, chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is one of the world’s authorities on the use of probiotics in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit setting to present and treat necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). She will discuss the normal neonatal acquisition of the gastrointestinal microbiota and outline factors that may disrupt an infant’s microbiota and the health consequences of such disruptions. Oliva-Hemker wil review the research supporting the use of probiotics to reduce the incidence of NEC in preterm, low-birth-weight infants and provide insight into why this beneficial and, most importantly, safe intervention has yet to be adopted by most neonatologists.

Stephen F. Olmstead, MD

, will discuss a neglected aspect of the gastrointesinal microbiota, the enigmatic stomach community. He will discuss research showing that Helicobacter pylori is part of a complex, yet to be understood, gastric microbiota. While clearly H. pylori can cause disease, more recent research suggests that colonization may have health benefits and that interventions such as probiotics and enzymes can be used synergistically to increase treatment success in patients requiring treatment.

The 7th Annual Probiotic Symposium will be held October 24–26 at the Embassy Suites Riverwalk Hotel in historic San Antonio, Texas. To register, call 866-216-6127 toll free Monday through Friday 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Pacific Time or visit www.ProbioticSymposium.com.