Prof. Tomasz Wypych of the Microbiome Research Laboratory at the Nencki Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences has received a prestigious award, the Nature Portfolio & Yakult Award. It was presented during the second edition of the RIKEN-ISM Targeting Microbiota Meeting, held on 24-25 September 2026 at the University of Tokyo in Japan.

The conference was jointly organized by the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (Japan's leading research institute) and the International Society of Microbiota (ISM). Prof. Wypych was invited to deliver a lecture, and he learned about the award on site. The Nature Portfolio & Yakult Award was granted for research showing that the bacteria living in our gut can regulate lung health through the metabolites they produce.

"In our project, we discovered that in asthma patients, microbiota-dependent bile acid metabolism (metabolism by the microorganisms living in the gut) is disrupted. Importantly, we also showed that 'repairing' this process can reduce inflammation in lung diseases," says Prof. Tomasz Wypych.

It is worth recalling that bile acids produced in the human body are toxic to gut bacteria. Over the course of evolution, these microorganisms have therefore learned to neutralize them. Because gut bacteria are extremely diverse, some began producing compounds that benefit the host in order to gain an evolutionary advantage over other microbes in the gut. Importantly, in people with asthma, the metabolism (processing and neutralization) of bile acids works differently than in healthy individuals.

Using information about how bile acids are neutralized in healthy people, Prof. Wypych's team isolated a metabolite of these substances, isolithocholic acid, which appears to treat asthma.

"Why is this important? Our results show that the microbiota is not merely a passive element of disease, but can actively influence lung immunity, both through immune cells and through the structural cells of the lung," the scientist emphasizes.

These discoveries open up two potential therapeutic paths for researchers: a nasal spray containing bioactive compounds that act directly in the airways, and probiotics containing the appropriate bacteria, designed to restore a specific protective metabolic pathway in asthma patients.

"It is a step toward therapies based not only on the composition of the microbiota, but above all on its function," says Prof. Tomasz Wypych.