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Earlier this week, Danone officially opened its OneBiome laboratory at its site in Paris-Saclay, described as its flagship hub for food innovation.

I was grateful to be among the attendees at the inauguration, which included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a cocktail lunch and presentations from Danone’s senior leadership. Guests were also given a tour of the new facilities.

The event was a symbolic launch for Danone, part of the dairy giant’s ongoing efforts to put science at the centre of how it develops new products.

The company has steadily increased its investment in R&I, building expertise in areas such as gut health, sustainable ingredients and personalised nutrition. By locating OneBiome in the Paris-Saclay cluster – an area known for its universities, research institutes and start-ups – Danone hopes to work more closely with partners and move new ideas from the lab into products more quickly.

The microbiome as “hidden health capital”

During a group interview I attended with other members of the media, Isabelle Esser – Danone’s chief research and innovation officer – described the microbiome as a form of “hidden health capital,” pointing to its emerging role in multiple areas of wellbeing.

She highlighted growing scientific evidence linking the gut to diabetes, immunity, inflammatory diseases and even mental health. While much of the detail remains under investigation, she said consumers have become increasingly aware that maintaining a resilient microbiome is vital.

Esser noted that product innovation is already moving in this direction but warned that science must underpin new claims. “Lots of products will come on the market as the science of the microbiome is advancing,” she stated, emphasising that there is a difference between claims and real proven benefits. For Danone, OneBiome intends to help close that gap by grounding product development in validated research.

From clinical nutrition to consumer brands

Esser explained that Danone’s medical nutrition arm is already applying microbiome research in hospitals. Products such as Fortisip are used to support oncology patients through treatment, strengthening microbiome resilience and enabling therapies to continue. “We know some probiotics enhance the barrier of the microbiome and therefore immune resistance,” she told reporters.

The same knowledge will increasingly filter into consumer brands. Esser pointed to Activia as an example of how Danone could adapt formulations to reflect the latest science.

Esser noted that Activia currently contains three types of biotics shown to support digestive health. As microbiome science advances, she suggested the brand could incorporate additional strains to extend benefits into areas such as immunity.

She added that many of Danone’s products are already built around biotics, meaning future scientific insights could be applied widely across the company’s portfolio.

Responding to new health frontiers

The rise of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss was a recurring topic at the event. Esser highlighted Danone’s work addressing the nutritional needs of people using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. “The problem with weight loss is often you not only lose fat, you lose a lot of muscle, and for a healthy body you cannot lose muscle,” she said. Danone has therefore developed products, such as Oikos Fusion, designed to help preserve and enhance muscle mass during treatment.

She added that GLP-1 users typically have a “very specific microbiome”. Not only do the drugs themselves affect the gut, but many users are also diabetic or managing other conditions, meaning they often experience dysbiosis.

On top of this, dietary patterns change significantly while on GLP-1 medication, which further influences the microbiome. “They need a different type of diet, nutrient-rich with more probiotics,” Esser explained, noting that users frequently experience digestive difficulties linked to the drug.

Other frontiers include healthy ageing and longevity. Esser said microbiome diversity shifts with age and suggested that interventions to restore this diversity could play a role in extending healthy lifespan. “If through the microbiome you could revert diseases and age in a very healthy way, that would be wonderful,” she said.

AI and the path to personalised diets

Emmanuel Perrin, Danone’s chief scientific officer, advanced technology ingredients senior director, suggested during an interview with FoodBev that perhaps the most transformative enabler is artificial intelligence. Advances in sequencing now allow scientists to map the full diversity of the microbiota, generating vast datasets.

Perrin explained that these billions of data points are impossible for humans to analyse alone, making AI “mandatory” for finding correlations between microbial composition, active ingredients and health outcomes.

This analytical power could enable the development of personalised nutrition. By assessing an individual’s microbial profile, Perrin noted that it may become possible to predict risks of certain conditions and design diets to prevent them.

“In a few years, it will be possible to design personal diets that fit your flora state, or even predict risks of disease from microbiome data,” he said. He also envisaged digital models that could simulate the impact of dietary changes on gut health, allowing consumers to see in advance how adjustments might affect resilience to inflammation or chronic disease.

He pointed out that these approaches are already being explored in clinical studies where interventions are tracked against microbiome changes. Perrin suggested that the ability to digitally model and predict outcomes could help create preventive diets tailored to individuals, representing what he described as one of the most significant innovations for the future of food and health.

The Paris-Saclay inauguration builds on Danone’s broader R&I footprint, which includes its Singapore site dedicated to microbiology, immunology and data-driven health. By connecting these hubs, the company is creating a global platform to move ideas from early-stage research into practical applications across its product portfolio.