Sourdough Research

We made bread and dough from 20 different sourdough starters, each with unique microbiomes, to look at the differences in how the micribomes affected physical and chemical outcomes of dough and bread, including pH, water activity, titratable acidity, crumb compression, rise volume, and crust color.

Gluten breakdown was assessed across the sourdough samples using SDS-PAGE and ninhydrin techniques, and sourdough samples were also compared to a yeast-fermented control dough.

We will examine gluten extracted from sourdough ferments to probe each microbiome for the relative ability to break down each of five toxic epitopes on the gliadin protein.

My ongoing research project aims to test the effect of sourdough-digested gluten on gut membrane function. Early tests will culture Caco-2 cells determine the effect of gluten preparations on epithelial cell membrane permeability.