Overview

The discovery and investigation of the microbiome has been one of the most cutting-edge advances in biomedical research of past ten years. The microbiome impacts human health and well being in many ways and it has been implicated as an important causative factor in the onset of a diverse range of human diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), liver disease, asthma, allergies, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, autism (ASD) or depression. Targeting the microbiome to treat and prevent diseases is driving the development of a new class of medicines -- Live Biotherapeutic Products -- which are a paradigm shift for the pharma industry and it may very well transform the current landscape of prescription drugs. The development of LBPs requires a great deal of validated data, including the need to monitor and track a patient microbiota. Administering LBPs will benefit from this kind of monitoring as well. There is the need and the opportunity to create a Point-of-Care device for tracking the microbiota of patients undergoing LBP therapies, directly from human samples without any preparation, by personnel with minimum training and providing results quickly, and at a low cost per test.