The Nest 42: Human Milk: Evolving of Nature‘s Understanding

The issue of The Nest brings together 2 important concepts, human milk oligosaccharides and peptides & proteases in human milk, and how both of them evolve in human milk:

Sean Austin and Norbert Sprenger, from Nestlé Research Center discuss how human milk oligosaccharides profile differs between individuals and evolves during the course of lactation, which suggests individual HMOs most likely play different biological roles, adapting to the growing infant's physiological needs;

Bruce German from University of California explores in his 2 articles the evolution of human milk not as simple proteins but rather a combination of proteins & proteases enzymes. He approaches topics such as how proteolysis of human milk happens and where it begins, and also implications to human milk digestion and to infant nourishment.