TIME Magazine names therapeutic microbiome-directed food a Best Invention of 2025
WashU Medicine co-developed food to nurture healthy gut microbes in malnourished children
Matt MillerJeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the WashU Medicine Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor, co-leads the team that developed a therapeutic food designed to treat childhood malnutrition. The microbiome-directed food has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025.
An innovative therapeutic food designed to treat childhood malnutrition has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025.
The team behind the therapeutic food is led by Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the WashU Medicine Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor, and his collaborator Tahmeed Ahmed, MBBS, PhD, at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
This therapeutic food, called microbiome-directed complementary food-2 (MDCF-2), is specifically designed to repair the abnormally forming gut microbiomes of children suffering from malnutrition. Clinical trials in Bangladesh have established that the food boosts the activities of gut microbes that play key roles in many facets of growth and development, including effects on proteins involved in regulating musculoskeletal development, brain development, metabolism and immune function. The benefits produced by MDCF-2 are far greater than those produced by a commonly used therapeutic food that was not designed to repair the microbiome.
Gordon’s team has identified the active compounds in MDCF-2 recognized by gut microbes and how these molecules are transformed, yielding new and deeper understanding of how food is connected to health through the activities of the gut microbiome. The work of the WashU-icddr,b team with MDCF-2 is providing a new perspective on the underpinnings of healthy growth — a perspective that emphasizes the necessity of having a properly choreographed program of co-development of the microbiome and the various organ systems of infants and children.
Clinical trials of the microbiome-directed food, involving nearly 7,000 children of different ages and degrees of malnutrition, are currently underway across sites in South Asia and Africa. The trials are funded by the Gates Foundation and conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization.
