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Article History

Received: 8 August 2025

Accepted: 5 February 2026

First Online: 19 February 2026

Competing interests

: S.L. serves as Guest Editor of npj Biofilms and Microbiomes but had no involvement in the peer review process or the decision to publish this paper. S.L. declares no financial competing interests. She is a voluntary academic board member of the International Scientific Association on Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP, ) and scientific advisor for Freya Biosciences, and declares research funding from YUN, Bioorg, Puratos, Lesaffre/Gnosis, DSM i-Health & dsm-firmenich (not directly involved in the content of this work). DSM i-Health & br/dsm-firmenich provided funding for the collection of human samples used as a reference in this work. I.S. has received funding from ISAPP and the International Probiotics Association (IPA) to attend conferences. P.A.B. is an independent consultant for several companies in the food and pharmaceutical industry bound by confidentiality agreements. B.V. has scientific collaborations with SACCO System and DEPOFARMA and is a scientific consultant for EOS2021. J.D. and S.L. are co-inventors on a patent application on L. crispatus AMBV-0815 related to its unique antimicrobial peptide production. This patent application is not directly linked to the content of this paper, with EPS being a more conserved immunomodulatory property.