Interview with Lars Bode: Oligosaccharides: Next Generation Functions

Human milk is alive and it is a personalized nutritional source: the structures of HMOs are diverse and very different between mothers.

The maternal factors (both genetic and environmental) driving variation in HMO composition are not fully understood. While there is some redundancy, HMOs are not fully interchangeable and the effects are often highly structure-specific. The short- and long-term effects of feeding individual HMOs are not fully evaluated – more human intervention study is needed.