Cryptobiotix research introducing a new diversity metric awarded Best Paper of the Year
Ghent, Belgium, 24 September 2026 – Cryptobiotix received the 2024 Best Paper of the Year award for its publication on the impact of a prebiotic dextran (NextDext™) on the gut microbiome. The journal Biology award recognises outstanding research. Its evaluation committee, chaired by Prof. Andrés Moya of the University of Valencia, selected the publication for its scientific merit, originality and impact.
The winning paper, “A Long-Chain Dextran Produced by Weissella cibaria Boosts the Diversity of Health-Related Gut Microbes Ex Vivo,” was published in Biology in January 2024 and co-authored by researchers from Biotexia (formerly AB Biotek Human Nutrition and Health) and Cryptobiotix, including Lam Dai Vu, Jonas Poppe, Pieter Van den Abbeele, and Aurélien Baudot.
Cryptobiotix, a pioneering contract research organisation specialising in ex vivo gut microbiome fermentation research, introduced in this publication the Community Modulation Score (CMS), a new quantitative approach to evaluating changes in microbial diversity. Traditional α-diversity indices describe characteristics such as species richness and evenness but can misestimate the impact of an intervention on actual diversity. By leveraging quantitative microbiome data generated with the SIFR® technology, the CMS instead assesses how many microbial taxa meaningfully increase or decrease following treatment. A positive combined CMS indicates that more taxa are stimulated than reduced, providing a complementary measure of whether an intervention broadly supports microbial diversity.
Using Cryptobiotix's predictive, ex vivo SIFR® technology pipeline, the study assessed how a high-molecular-weight dextran (NextDext™, produced by Weissella cibaria) affects the gut microbiota of six human adults, compared with the reference prebiotic inulin.
The authors found that the dextran supported a broader and more diverse range of health-related gut bacteria, including Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, and butyrate producers such as F. prausnitzii, while producing less gas than inulin, suggesting better tolerability alongside comparable metabolic benefits.
“Traditional diversity metrics can be difficult to interpret as they do not account for the overall growth of the microbial population,” commented Pieter Van den Abbeele, CSO and co-founder of Cryptobiotix. “We are grateful for the recognition of our efforts to push the boundaries of microbiome research! ”
The award adds to Cryptobiotix's growing body of peer-reviewed research using its innovative SIFR® technology pipeline to characterise how products and ingredients modulate the human and animal gut microbiome. Through this work, Cryptobiotix supports partners across the functional food, nutrition, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors in understanding product mechanisms of action and generating evidence to accelerate and de-risk product development.
Read the full publication here: Long-chain dextran boosts diversity - ex vivo SIFR study.
About Cryptobiotix
Cryptobiotix is a pioneering, preclinical contract research organisation providing research services on functional foods and therapeutic products, across food, biotech and pharma sectors. It developed the SIFR® technology (Systemic Intestinal Fermentation Research), a pipeline built and validated to predict in the laboratory how individuals would respond to products in vivo. From early R&D screening to in-depth characterisation, Cryptobiotix addresses specific research questions and provides the answers to accelerate and de-risk gut health product development.
For more information, please visit https://cryptobiotix.com/ or follow Cryptobiotix on LinkedIn.
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Cryptobiotix
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