INFORM are delighted to announce the funding award for a Feasibility Study Project ”The PROPIONI Study – Investigating the Role of Dietary Probiotics on Athletic Performance and Health via lactate and SCFA Metabolism”, led by Dr Neil Williams.

Project Team:

Dr Neil Williams – Nottingham Trent University (PI)
Mr Connor Parker – Nottingham Trent University
Dr Arthur Constantijn – IFF
Henna-Maria Kailanto – IFF/Danisco (UK) Ltd
Oliver Hasselwander – IFF/Danisco (UK) Ltd

This project targets key challenges faced by endurance athletes, including high inflammation, post-exercise fatigue, impaired recovery, and increased illness and injury risk. These issues are linked to intense training loads and disruptions in gut barrier integrity, immunity, and lactate metabolism—factors that significantly influence athletic performance and health.

Project Aims:

The PROPIONI Study aims to:

  • Test whether daily supplementation with a dual-strain probiotic (Propionibacterium and Lacticaseibacillus) can enhance athletic performance by improving lactate-to-propionate metabolism, increasing metabolic efficiency during exercise.

  • Examine effects on 5 km running performance, recovery, gut microbiome composition, gut permeability biomarkers, and immune function.

  • Generate proof-of-concept data through a 7-week double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, crossover trial in trained endurance athletes.

  • Translate findings into future large-scale funding applications and support new product development, enabling innovation in the sports nutrition sector.

 

Potential Impact:

The project offers significant scientific, commercial, and translational value by generating the first human evidence on probiotic-driven enhancement of lactate metabolism and endurance performance. It could enable new probiotic performance products, inform exercise strategies for clinical and ageing populations, strengthen the NTU–IFF partnership, support future large-scale funding, and advance understanding of the gut–exercise axis.