Archer Daniels Midland Company said it will collaborate with Mayo Clinic’s Microbiome Program, led by Dr. Heidi Nelson, to investigate microbial solutions. The two companies say the goal is to improve health and wellness, initially focusing on the maintenance of healthy body weight.

“We are pleased to enter into this cutting-edge collaboration with Mayo Clinic to study the association of specific probiotics, prebiotics, and other nutrients with body weight,” said Vikram Luthar, ADM’s president, Bioactives. “Personalized nutrition is an important growth platform for ADM. Earlier this year, we acquired Biopolis, a leading player in health-promoting microbial technology. Now, by working with Mayo Clinic, we are further expanding our capabilities to develop personalized nutrition solutions to improve health and wellness, and bring these beneficial solutions directly to consumers.”

The goal of the collaboration is to develop a personalized nutrition model that predicts the effects of probiotics, prebiotics and other metabolites, as well as other nutrients in microbiome shifts, for improving individual health.

In the initial phase, ADM and Mayo Clinic will work to design a computational method for testing probiotics, metabolites, and other intervention strategies that promote the growth of gut microbes linked to healthy body weight.

Additional projects are planned to leverage both organizations’ strengths. Mayo Clinic will provide data analysis, modeling and gut microbiome expertise. ADM will bring expertise in food ingredients, strain development and genomics, as well as commercialization capabilities.

About ADM

For more than a century, the people of Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) have transformed crops into products that serve the vital needs of a growing world. Today, we’re one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, with approximately 32,000 employees serving customers in more than 160 countries. With a global value chain that includes approximately 500 crop procurement locations, 250 ingredient manufacturing facilities, 38 innovation centers and the world’s premier crop transportation network, we connect the harvest to the home, making products for food, animal feed, industrial and energy uses.

Learn more at www.adm.com.