The human digestive system is a highly complex and dynamic environment. While in vivo studies offer strong biological relevance, they can be costly, difficult to control, and affected by substantial biological variability. In vitro models provide greater experimental control and reproducibility but often reproduce only selected aspects of human digestion.

In this webinar, Dr. Simen Akkermans, Postdoctoral Researcher at KU Leuven/BioTeC+, will introduce FooDSIM, an open and reproducible in vitro digestion simulator built around interconnected mini-bioreactors.

FooDSIM translates the complexity of the human gastrointestinal environment into a controlled bioreactor platform. Four mini-bioreactor vessels represent the stomach, upper small intestine, lower small intestine, and colon. The system controls parameters such as temperature, mixing, oxygen availability, pH, fluid transfer, enzyme addition, and nutrient absorption to reproduce key digestion phases dynamically.

The presentation will explain how the research team developed the platform, implemented physiologically relevant process dynamics, and incorporated a synthetic gut microbiota community to enable controlled and reproducible studies of microbial activity and digestive processes.