The start of a new year naturally includes a quick look back. Many of my PhD dreams came true and made 2024 a really exciting and interesting year. As a PhD student, I got the chance to start and help run our brand-new vitamin study VIAB2L. And why did that feel so unique? Well, ever since my Master’s thesis, our vitamin B2-producing Isala bacterium has been central to my research. So it was the icing on the cake that this great bacterium would be taken by participants during my PhD research to study the benefits on women’s health. Indeed, our vitamin study started in 2024, and by now the first phase is already over. Days, weeks, months flew by, and I am happy to look back on this wonderful vitamin year and ahead to what is about to come 🙂
As Isala team, we were eager to explore the beneficial effects of vitamin B2 (or riboflavin) on women’s health. The discovery of our riboflavin-producing Limosilactobacillus reuteri AMBV339 bacterium has taken all credit for this. Our VIAB2L study was born quickly and became the core of my PhD research. It was supposed to become a real intervention study in which participants would take capsules with vitamin B2, our super bacterium, the combination of both or a placebo for a certain period of time. And so it began…
Setting up such an intervention study first requires a lot of reflection and of course has to go the official way. We received approval from the ethics committee in February 2024 whereafter we could start a whole series of preparations. The official start in autumn 2024 was soon marked in our calendars. It didn’t become a sprint but a marathon with a clear goal: welcoming the first participants at our Isala lab on September 9. We had a lot of work to do but together with the entire VIAB2L study team I rolled up my sleeves every day with great pleasure.
Let’s start with a brief summary of our activities. First, we continued designing our study. For this, we relied on open research questions, the needs of women, knowledge gaps in literature, and so on. To be able to investigate the effects of vitamin B2 and vitamin-producing lactobacilli on women’s health, we had to administer them in some form. We chose capsules but before the capsule production line started, we extensively tested the safety and stability of the vitamins and the freeze-dried bacterium. As soon as we got a view on this (after many months of follow-up), hundreds of capsule boxes were nicely filled and reached our Isala lab.
At the same time, we focused on another (indispensable!) aspect of our study: the search for participants. At the end of April, we launched a large recruitment campaign for several Isala daughter studies at once. Although we managed to reach a large group of interested women, we clearly faced a number of challenges too. Interest in participating is one thing (and super unique!), but the practical side is another one. For example, our Isala lab is not as accessible for everyone, which immediately made the five scheduled study visits more difficult. On top of that, our working hours often overlapped with those of interested candidates. Other reasons also often made a VIAB2L participation impossible, but we didn’t give up and enthusiastically continued our search. And yes, everything worked out! The desired number of enthusiastic VIAB2L participants was reached and we are eternally grateful for their contribution 🙂
In the meantime, we ordered all the necessary materials for our study. All suppliers clearly knew where to find our Isala lab on Campus Groenenborger. We looked for storage space for dozens of received boxes and stored everything neatly inside and outside the lab. Temporarily, of course, because the next step on our agenda was assembling the sampling kits, one for each participant. With the help of job students in our Isala lab, different piles of sampling kits quickly arose, which was just in time because we were expecting our participants for the first time at the end of the summer. Indeed, we organized an information evening on campus to hand over their sampling kit. This way they could get acquainted with our VIAB2L study team and hear all details about our vitamin study. Of course, there was also room for a snack, drink and chat 🙂
We continued preparations and relied on our design skills. The way to our Isala lab was marked with arrows and flags, toilets were prepared with instructions for sample collection, a reception and waiting room were designed with Isala pink chairs, plants and an information panel, and our study room was furnished with all necessary materials for the study nurse. That’s where Laurien came on the scene as a person of trust for our participants and for collecting blood samples. Later on, it became clear that she made an amazing contribution to our team!
By then, the first milestone had been reached: all preparations were done! On the morning of September 9, everything was ready, and we were excited (also a bit nervous ;-)). We knew which participants to expect first. Thanks to an online agenda platform (thanks to colleague Tim!), participants were able to schedule their five consecutive study visits. On the very first day, eight of them started their study trajectory. We could finally welcome them with open arms 🙂 The first samples were taken and ended up in our lab with lab technician Camille. And many more samples would follow! Camille carefully processed each sample (more than 7500 in total, wow!). What a commitment! Our largest and most important freezers are currently running at full capacity to ensure proper storage so we can continue working with these precious samples in the coming months.
From September 9 onwards, we had our daily to do’s: welcoming participants, processing and storing samples, answering emails, continuing our search for participants, following up questionnaire responses, checking results, offering a listening ear, solving planning issues, and so on. We had our hands full and at the same time we were having a great time! The first study trajectory was completed on October 21 (another milestone!) and the last one on January 20. Of course, no one went home empty-handed. A nicely filled goodie bag was carefully assembled and distributed to each participant. We would like to say again: thank you a thousand times! 🙂
Now I am very much looking forward to the next steps. We will continue working on the samples that are safely stored in our Isala freezers. Our participants will be waiting in suspense for a while but of course we will keep them informed of the results of our study and their microbiome profiles. And we too are super curious! Stay tuned for more 🙂