Exploring the Impact of Probiotics and Fermented Food on Gut Microbiota for Personalized Nutrition and Host Health

Dear Colleagues,

It is my great pleasure to share that I have been invited to serve as a Guest Editor for an upcoming Special Issue in Biology titled “Exploring the Impact of Probiotics and Fermented Food on Gut Microbiota for Personalized Nutrition and Host Health.”

Over the past decade, the gut microbiome has emerged as one of the most influential determinants of human health. Increasing evidence shows that the gut microbial ecosystem plays a central role in digestion and metabolism, immune modulation, neurological function, and the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases. Understanding how diet and microorganisms shape this complex community has become a key scientific priority across biology, medicine, and food science.

Probiotics and fermented foods have long been recognized for their health benefits, but recent advances in microbiome science, multi-omics technologies, and strain-level characterization have revolutionized our ability to understand their mechanisms of action. This growing body of knowledge supports their potential as targeted tools to modulate the gut microbiota, enhance metabolic resilience, and promote overall host health.

At the same time, the field is rapidly shifting toward personalized nutrition, recognizing that the “one-size-fits-all” dietary approach is insufficient. Individual variations in gut microbiota composition, genetics, lifestyle, and metabolic responses demand more precise dietary interventions. Integrating probiotics, functional fermented foods, and microbiome profiling is increasingly viewed as a promising strategy to design personalized dietary solutions that improve health outcomes and reduce disease risk.

In light of these developments, this Special Issue aims to gather cutting-edge research and comprehensive reviews to deepen our understanding and accelerate innovation in this important field. 

The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Mechanistic studies on how probiotics and fermented foods modulate gut microbial composition and metabolic function;
• basic studies linking microbiota changes to host metabolic, immune, and physiological outcomes;
• Personalized and precision nutrition approaches guided by gut microbiome data;
• Multi-omics technologies supporting microbiome-based dietary intervention design;
• Interactions between diet, microbial ecology, and host health.

I look forward to receiving your contributions in this Special Issue.

Dr. Nakphaichit Massalin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• probiotics (bacteria and yeast)
• gut microbiota and mycobiome
• personalized nutrition
• microbiome–host interaction mechanisms
• gut–axis communication (brain/skin/immune)