To teach students about the developmental processes of the gut microbiota from the fetal period through old age, as well as the structural and functional characteristics of prebiotic, probiotic, and synbiotic components; and to equip them with the skills to analyze the clinical mechanisms of action of these agents in gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases through evidence-based studies and at the level of specific bacterial strains, thereby enabling disease-specific dietary interventions and the prescribing of prebiotics and probiotics.

The concepts of microbiota, microbiome, and dysbiosis; prebiotic criteria, inulin-type fructans (ITF), fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galactooligosaccharides (GOS), and human milk oligosaccharides (HMO); the taxonomy of probiotics and strain-specific characteristics; fetal, neonatal, and childhood microbiota development; SIBO, IBS, Leaky Gut, and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease); The relationship between the microbiota and the use of probiotics in constipation, liver cirrhosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2DM), and lipid metabolism disorders; The role of probiotic strains in oncogenesis, cancer prevention, and the management of treatment-related complications (diarrhea) is discussed.