Why HOWARU^®

“As a Tech Lead of Early life Nutrition Platform, my work is to innovate, design and manage studies that increase our knowledge on how infant health could be supported via microbiome modulation. This modulation can be done via products that either contain probiotics, meaning living microbes that can go through infant gastrointestinal tract alive, or prebiotics, which are food for these beneficial microbes.”

What do you like best about your job?
“I love the part where our team explores the opportunities that could help small children in the future. I find complexity of microbiota fascinating, and I really enjoy innovating how exactly could we give infant microbiota development those important little pumps and gentle nudges to steer it towards the composition that supports health. It is highly motivating to work towards improving health of the next generation.”

What interested you in working in the field of probiotics?
“The microbes that live on inner and outer surfaces of human beings are connected to our health in ways that seem incredible. Already right after birth microbes secrete small particles that are able to cause short- and long-term effects in infant bodily systems. Sometimes, those effects can last until adulthood, and impact the risk of certain diseases. I find that quite amazing and have been curious to understand better and better how exactly does this happen – and that is the road I am still on as a researcher.”

What work-related accomplishment are you most proud of?
“I gave a TED talk at the TED@DuPont event in autumn 2019 on infant microbiota development, and on the opportunities probiotics and human milk oligosaccharides offer for infant health via microbiota development modulation. The talk has already been watched over 2 million times and continues to receive viewers. I felt that giving the talk at TED platform gave me an opportunity to increase the awareness on how important it is to secure infant microbiota development from the very beginning of life, and I am proud of grasping to that opportunity.”

“I work in a team that investigates what kind of effects bacteria, tiny living creatures in our gut, have on human health. My role is to help the team to understand the effect of bacteria on the immune system, composed of tiny human cells, that fights off the bad bacteria and takes care of the good bacteria.”

What do you like best about your job?
“I have for long wanted to understand how human biology in general and immune system specifically works. Thus, the opportunity to participate in and contribute to leading edge global scientific projects and to learn from colleagues, collaborators and scientific community different aspects of science and product development has been intriguing.”

What interested you in working in the field of probiotics?
“To understand immunology requires understanding of its counterpart – microbes.”

Why do you think it’s important to take probiotics?
“Human studies in the past decade have shown associations between dysbiotic microbiota and health risks. Thus, having healthy microbiota could help in maintaining health. Although much research is still required to prove health benefits of specific probiotics, they are safe to use with no harm and have potential in maintaining the homeostasis of the microbiota that supports human health.”

What work-related accomplishment are you most proud of?
“In 2011 Medical Faculty of the University of Helsinki recognized my work on how innate immunity differentiates between self and non-self with the Thesis of the Year Award.”

“As part of the R&D team, we investigate beneficial good bacteria, called probiotics. We aim to understand how probiotics work in our bodies and provide health benefits, for instance, by supporting the function of the microbes within us. In my role I am especially intrigued by how probiotics could support women’s health, like how probiotics support mothers’ health in pregnancy.”

What do you like best about your job?
“In my work I especially enjoy learning new science, brainstorming sessions and interacting with different scientists, colleagues, and customers all around the world.”

What interested you in working in the field of probiotics?
“I have been always very interested in biology, bacteria and viruses. During my master’s studies in the University of Helsinki I specialized in infectious diseases. In my PhD studies, I directed my interest into human microbiota and probiotics and became highly curious how supporting the endogenous bacteria in our bodies could be an alternative solution to counteract against infectious diseases and to support our health.”

Why do you think it’s important to take probiotics?
“Probiotics are natural, safe, and affordable means to support human health from babies to the elderly.”

What work-related accomplishment are you most proud of?
“I am especially proud when a commercial product is developed based on our scientific work and when our scientific paper is accepted into a publication to a high-quality scientific journal after hard work and team effort.”

“My work includes, among many other things, designing and conducting studies with a team of experts, communicating with people around the company, and keeping up-to-date on the research others do in the field. My specific interest is how athletes and physically active people could benefit from probiotics. Especially how probiotics could support the well-being of people doing sports and do their best when they train and participate in competitions.”

What do you like best about your job?
“I have loved science ever since I was a school-aged kid. Doing scientific research is at best like doing detective work with a team of experts from many different areas. I am grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful colleagues from whom I learn all the time.”

What interested you in working in the field of probiotics?
“I am a nutrition scientist by training, and human health has always been a great interest to me. Before joining the company in 2017, I had studied the impact of dietary compounds on health, but to lesser extent from the gut microbiota perspective. It has been a great opportunity to broaden my understanding on how our health is affected by a multitude of factors, including probiotics.”

Why do you think it’s important to take probiotics?
“Probiotics are a safe and easy way to support our health and well-being. Probiotics have various scientifically proven benefits for the individual throughout the life.”

What work-related accomplishment are you most proud of?
“During my career, it must be when completing my PhD in nutrition science in 2014 at the University of Helsinki. What makes me also proud and happy is the support of my team members and their commitment to the work that we drive together.”

“I work with colleagues who work in the lab, doing preclinical research on probiotics and I work with colleagues wo do clinical studies with probiotics. Together we try to understand what our probiotics do and what benefits they can provide. I try to pull together what they find with things others have done with probiotics. All those things we have learned we write up and publish, and present at conferences. I also answer questions about probiotics from colleagues on the things we or others have investigated. Finally, every now and then I work with colleagues from other companies on questions we all have regarding probiotics and we try to solve those together.”

What do you like best about your job?
“I always learn new things as some of my colleagues are scientists and others are not, but all of them are experts on different aspects of probiotics. But, I also get questions from customers and they seem to have an unlimited imagination. So, together with my colleagues we take the challenge to figure out what the best response is, and we all learn something new.”

What interested you in working in the field of probiotics?
“I started as a student working with lactobacilli for pigs. The concept of probiotics was interesting but using them to keep pigs healthy and make them grow faster did not feel very satisfying. However, using them in humans, seemed much more relevant and interesting.”

Why do you think it’s important to take probiotics?
“I am convinced that probiotics provide us an affordable way to live a healthier life.”

What work-related accomplishment are you most proud of?
“I am proud of products that were developed based on the research we did, HOWARU Restore, HOWARU Transit, etc. Although I am very much a scientist and would be happy to do science for the fun of it, it is satisfying to see the research we did led to a product and may help people living healthier lives.”

“I am interested in investigating how the trillions of microorganisms, that live within and on our bodies can communicate with the brain and vice-versa. We call this pathway of communication the microbiota-gut-brain axis and we now know that by altering the microbes in the gut, for example through diet or probiotic intake, we can target gut-brain signaling pathways to influence how the brain functions, and how we behave and experience emotions. I currently lead a portfolio of research and innovation projects on our Gut-Brain Health platform and together with my team, we build on the existing science by designing and conducting new studies to investigate the role of probiotics in brain health. This is such an exciting area of research and there is always something new to discover. Since chronic stress and mood disorders are on the rise globally, investigating novel ways to support mental and brain health and providing targeted solutions to consumers is hugely important.”

What do you like best about your job?
“Every day I learn something new, not only about the science but also about how the nutrition, biosciences and probiotics industries operate. Designing novel research with innovation in mind is always a challenge; there are so many questions that we seek the answers to, but we have teams of solution-oriented people with creative minds and we collaborate efficiently to meet our goals. My schedule every day is different and so I never get bored in the same routine. I am also passionate about communication, meeting new people, establishing new collaborations and traveling all of which are key aspects of my job.”

What work-related accomplishment are you most proud of?
“I am proud of our first product launch in brain health; that is HOWARU® Calm. Stress has become increasingly prevalent worldwide and for many of us, it has a significant impact on our daily lives. This daily, or chronic stress, is a risk-factor for the development of mood and stress-related disorders. HOWARU® Calm is a clinically studied probiotic which can help people manage the psychological response to stress to promote overall well-being and a relaxed state of mind. I am proud of what our team and I have achieved with this product, and I am proud of the continued work that we do within the Gut-Brain Health platform.”