Glasgow Caledonian University and Haleon plc KTP 24_25 R2

Background: Currently the ways in which products are developed in the consumer oral care business are preferentially driven by claims support that new and innovative products will yield a 2 or 3 log reduction of particular bacterial species. However, this leads to ecological destruction of the oral environment analogous to deforestation of the rainforests. Removal of key bacterial species has the potential to lead to dysbiosis of the oral microbiome, which in turn can lead to destructive oral diseases, such as caries, periodontitis and mucosal infection. Proposal aims: The ORMAT (ORal Microbiome Analysis Toolkit ) programme aims to support Haleon’s understanding of how oral healthcare products influence the microorganisms that live in the mouth. The project will support the rationale design and development of new oral hygiene products through integration of a new toolkit based on microbiome analysis. We aim to build skills and expertise to enable microbiome data integration. This will be facilitated through the curation of evolving oral microbiome data sets that can be used these as a dynamic reference tool.