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Unlocking the Power of Precision – A new era in microbiome analysis
Bio-Me believes that unlocking the wealth of information in our microbiome holds the key to delivering on the promise of precision medicine. With its Precision Microbiome Profiling (PMP™) platform Bio-Me is driving the realization of precision medicine by enabling the development novel drugs, diagnostics and nutritional interventions that factor-in the microbes that make you who you are.
Far to many patients do not respond to the treatments they are given. Precision medicine aims to solve this by factoring-in the essential information that distinguishes patients from eachother, tailoring treatments to work on basis of this information. Cancer treatments are a prime examples of medical interventions that have significantly benefitted from a precision medicine approach.
Take immunotherapy as an example. Hundreds of genetic predispositions and cancer cell mutations have been catalogued and are being used to improve the likelihood of treatment success in immunotherapy. Still, currently less than half of patients respond to treatment. Nonetheless, based on a number of seminal publications in Nature, Cell and Science, leading reseachers have put forward that one factor alone, the microbiome, could be a more powerful predictor of treatment success than all the others combined.
“It has now been widely recognized that the bacterial composition of our gut strongly influences our health in general. There are clear mechanistic links to diseases and health conditions that warrant the need for developing diagnostic markers to better inform treatment and product development based on microbiome profiles. Such diagnostics must rapidly deliver accurate and reproducible information that can inform health care providers – and information must be actionable. This is the challenge we are providing the solution for”, explains Runar Vige, Chief Business Officer at Bio-Me.
We are walking superorganisms
Our microbiomes are the most diverse and complex part of what makes who we are as humans. In reality we are walking habitats for trillions of microorganisms – bacteria, viruses and fungi colonize us from birth and permenantly reside with us throughout our lives.
”In many cases microbes process the nutrients and drugs we consume before they reach our own cells, predetermining the impact they can have. The microbes in our gut are also the ”bootcamp” for our immune systems, training our immune response and regulating its efficacy throughout our lives. The interplay between our cells and microbes play a pivotal role in disease and this has tremendous potenial to benefit medicine and product development - it needs to be factored-in”, explains Warren Flood, CEO at Bio-Me.
Of equal importance is the potential that the vaginal microbiome may hold to resolve many of the highly prevalent issues facing women’s health. Recurring and persistant infections impact at least 1 in 10 women globally, many of these are resistant to antibiotics. The risk of recurring infection is directly connected to the vaginal microbiome, along with a host of other challenges such as preterm birth, infertility and in vitro fertilization success, and endometrosis. Fortunately the vaginal microbiome is both less complex and better understood than other microbiomesc. This makes it a tantilizing first target for realizing the potential of microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics to significantly improve global health.
Choosing the right tool - Analysis platform built on well established technology
Bio-Me has developed a unique analysis platform and assays for advanced, accurate and comprehensive analysis of the gut microbiome. The PMPTM platform is built on a well established and validated technology, quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). The assays that detect and accurately quantify the DNA of selected bacteria and viruses are developed in close collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific.
”Our understanding of both the diversity and importance of the human microbiome has come from one of the most important tools in biological research of our time: DNA sequencing. An exceptional tool for exploration and discovery. However, it lacks standardization and reproducibility needed for a diagnostic tool. The PCR technology that we work with is extremely refined and known for its reproducibility”, explains Warren Flood, CEO of Bio-Me.
The analyses help biotech- and food companies develop novel terapies and food products of the future. In this setting it is critically important that Bio-Me’s setup allows for rapid analysis of hundreds or microorganisms in parallell in just a matter of a few hours.
Moving on to other microbiomes
It is most interesting that Bio-Me chose to focus on the gut microbiome, as it is the most diverse of all microbiomes. By doing this, Bio-Me has ensured a high level of know-how and expertise in the field, which makes it easier to move on to analysing other microbiomes.
“We developed our proof of concept with the gut microbiome, and we are now developing the PMPTM platform further to analyse other microbial communities, such as the vaginal microbiome and skin microbiome. This is a clear response to market demands”, says Runar Vige, Chief Business Officer of Bio-Me.
Bio-Me is working with opinion leaders to develop comprehensive analyses of the skin and the vaginal microbiome. The company supports skin care and cosmetics developers, as well as academic researchers and biotech companies developing therapies for women’s health.
Bio-Me sees women’s health as first application were microbiome-based precision medicine can have a global impact on health
In April this year, Bio-Me attended the new conference on Microbes in Women’s Health, held for the first time in Copenhagen. The conference will be an annual gathering for anyone interested in developments in women’s health, with a specific focus on the microbiome.
“Bio-Me’s next products are routine testing tools designed to empower women with actionable results, informing them of their predisposed risk to infection”, says Warren Flood, CEO of Bio-Me.
The company works with developers of products and therapies that can modulate the vaginal microbiome to improve health. One such example is the Swedish company Gedea Biotech that is developing therapies for vaginal infections.
Solving the mystery of the human microbiome
Bio-Me is a force to be reckoned with. By partnering with several other developers in the field, Bio-Me aims to solve the mystery of the human microbiome.
The future of medicine is indeed decided today. It lies in the efforts of Bio-Me and many other developers of cell-based analytics, diagnostics, and therapies. The therapies of the future will be more tailored to each patient’s needs. Analytic solutions will be more targeted and specific, and diagnostic tools will be more reliable.
