Webinar Summary

• Rodent indirect calorimetry and its applications
• Indirect calorimetry under highest hygienic standards
• Microbiota and impact on health
• Calorimetric measurement under defined gut microbiome conditions

Prof. John Speakman: Maximising Translation of Mouse Calorimetry to Humans

Human calorimetry is founded on two different technologies. Room calorimetry which enables measures of 24h energy demands, and hood calorimetry which measures just the resting energy demands. The systems currently available for rodents mimic the room calorimeters. However, there is no equivalent system to the hood calorimeter. In the first portion of the webinar, Prof. Speakman introduces the TSE Systems' PhenoMaster platform and how it mimics room calorimetry systems and then introduces a new chamber design that his group have developed with TSE systems to mimic the hood calorimeter, along with some preliminary data from this system.

Prof. Emma Slack: Real-time Analysis of Gut Microbiome Function

Every internal and external body surface of an animal hosts a microbial consortium. The density, diversity and dynamics of these consortia vary over many orders of magnitude. In some cases, particularly in insects, a single microbial species is found in almost all members of a host species. In others, such as humans, shared microbiota species seem to be an exception rather than a rule. Nevertheless, the importance of these consortia for the health of the host is increasingly recognized. Major questions remain over how microbiota composition influences health, but a major axis is clearly via metabolic exchange. In the second portion of the webinar, Prof. Slack introduces work using isolator-housed TSE PhenoMaster systems for metabolic analysis of animals with zero microbiomes, as well as the use of secondary electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and novel sensor design to expand the functionality of these systems.