Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) are deceptively simple. There are six of them that are routinely studied (acetate, propionate, butyrate, isovalerate, valerate, and isobutyrate), and they are cheap and relatively straightforward to analyze. Their simplicity belies a much more complex story that is often overlooked. There are many review papers on the subject1–3, but we felt an abridged version was …

I’ve heard of probiotics, but what are they? Probiotics are living bacteria in a food or supplement designed to seed the gastrointestinal tract (GI) with bacteria. While any bacterium added to food could theoretically fall under this category, the term is typically reserved for bacteria considered beneficial in the colon. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and …

This is us in 2018, several months before the idea to start Traverse Science would take hold.Welcome to Traverse Science. Our company was born out of a need discovered by Dr. Ryan Dilger and Dr. Stephen Fleming while working with researchers in industry. Who are we? Ryan is a nutrition scientist and hobbyist engineer. Stephen is a neuroscientist and entrepreneur. …