 Hi everybody, my name is Laura, I'm a final year PhD student at Munster Technological University and Chagas Food Research Centre, Moorpark. So I'm here with Laura and I'm going to ask her a few questions about her session. It actually has a pretty interesting title, Mining the Gap Microbiome of Elite Athletes for Novel Probiotics. So can you tell me a little bit about how your session went today and what did you talk about? Yeah, sure. So my PhD essentially looks at, you know, mining the Gap Microbiome for Novel Probiotics. Today I spoke about assessing the Gap Microbiome of athletes for antimicrobial potential. You know, it is quite important for victorians to be able to kill other microorganisms, especially in the context of athletes where they tend to have a lot of gut issues. So this is where we looked at and it was kind of different and cool in a way where, you know, we looked both at the in vitro side of things where we actually went into the lab and culture things. But we also did in silico analysis whereby we constructed metagenome-assembled genomes and looked at the bacterias and potential that way. So we had a very broad overview of what's there. So you said you sampled, you saw microbiome samples, right? Yeah. So where did that come from? Yeah, so everything we do in terms of athletes is an association with Sports Ireland. So they can help us with getting our fecal samples. And these are all elite athletes of different sports types and most of them went to the Olympics. Wow. Yeah. We had a really good last. Okay. So a question about, you know, you were sampling fecal samples and studying what bacteria really or were you looking at also what types of species were you looking at or just the general? General overview. Yeah. So I suppose the best way to describe this at least have a very different microbiome. It's more diverse. So if you think about it, every microbe will have a different function. So the more different types of microbes you have, the more functions you can do. That comes down to digestion, immunity, your cognitive help. It has so much more to offer. So we were looking at everything. There are certain bacterial species that we know that are elevated in different sports types. So I do have a very cool study coming up now which actually shows that different sports types do have a very different abundance of different bacterial species, which is cool in a way. Yeah. And let's say you've identified some species, then are you thinking of using those as probiotics, right? Absolutely. For them after. Yeah. We think it might be kind of a very novel way and personalized probiotics. I think this is where it's going. My question is, you know, you collect fecal samples, but then aren't some bacteria that could act as probiotics get lost or die because of, you know, stomach, lactic acid? Yeah. A very important function in a probiotic is their resistance to bile acids. So they can come through your stomach and actually survive the gastrointestinal tract. I think the massive issue with collecting fecal samples is air. You know, when you're an athlete and you're not a scientist, you don't realize, you know, you only have a few seconds to close your fecal samples in the tube because essentially the air will kill the very sensitive microbes. And unfortunately, we won't be able to culture them back. Where do you think this research can go on next? I would like to see it go into personalized probiotics. I think it's where it's going. I think we still have so much more to find out. You know, we only know a few species, but the microbiome is so complex. I don't know where it's going to go. But I really think there's more to the story than what we know now. Yeah, definitely, definitely. And, you know, we've been here for at least half a day now at the Miffy conference. So how are you finding the conference? I guess this is your first in-person conference for quite a while, right? Yes. So everything up till now was, everything was done online. So it's quite nice to get out and walk around the city and the campus is lovely. You know, everybody's like coming up and asking questions and is wondering about at least. So it is very nice to see. And how has it been being a researcher at your university? You said you're at your final PhD year. How has it been? And, you know, you're at the stage of writing up now? I'm still finishing up two of my studies. And the one I spoke about today, we're at the end of preparing the manuscript for a publication. Then we have a tiny bit more of lab work left and then I'm done. Yeah, it was challenging to say at least, but it was cool. You know, we found so much. And I think I do a lot of bioinformatics. So when you spend hours and hours looking at a code and then it works, it's cool. Yeah. And to end this small interview, I just want to end it on a very positive note. You know, you're an early career researcher, a scientist. What piece of advice would you give to somebody attending such conferences? I think it's never as bad as you think it is in your head. You know, I think people tend to dramatize stuff in their head because we're so young and we're not used to stuff. But I think everybody's so open and kind of welcoming and the atmosphere is so nice. I just think, just, you know, get out and do it. And it's going to be worth it. That's a great piece of advice. Thank you so much for your time and, you know, enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you.