Our CEO and bioinformaticians have published a paper in Gut Microbes together with colleagues in Danone and APC Microbiome Ireland. The randomized, double-blinded, controlled clinical trial shows how the microbiome, perturbed by H. pylory eradication therapy, recovers faster after consuming a multi-strain fermented milk product (L. paracasei CNCM I-1518, L. paracasei CNCM I-3689, L. rhamnosus CNCM I-3690 + 4 yogurt strains). These findings will be important when developing microbiome-protective probiotics in the future.

With the growing size and complexity of microbiome datasets, Machine Learning has showed great promise in classification and prediction of states of health and disease. As an Editor of the special issue of ML and the microbiome, our CEO here describes some published cutting-edge research in the field. He is also the Chair of the EU COST Action ML4Microbiome which aims to standardise, optimise and disseminate the use of ML for microbiome research.

SeqBiome is delighted to receive further recognition of our microbiological expertise and global standing, with our CTO Prof Paul Cotter being invited as Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology.

The SeqBiome team also contributed to a publication by Irish and Swiss researchers in the journal Allergy entitled “Higher levels of bacterial DNA in serum associate with severe and fatal COVID-19”. Among other things, the study provides additional evidence for a loss of epithelial barrier function in patients with severe COVID-19.

More and more scientists are turning to SeqBiome for their microbiome analysis. SeqBiome has together with colleagues in AO Research Institute Davos, Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, Cornell University, Hospital for Special Surgery and APC Microbiome Ireland, published a study on murine bone healing, inflammation and the microbiome in Mediators of Inflammation. The findings suggests that butyrate can regulate systemic inflammation and is important for healing bone fractures.

SeqBiome CTO, Paul Cotter, was part of an international approach, coordinated by the City University of New York and published in Nature Medicine, to establish the STORMS ‘Strengthening The Organization and Reporting of Microbiome Studies’ checklist. This checklist provides guidance for concise and complete reporting of microbiome studies that will facilitate manuscript preparation, peer review, and reader comprehension of publications and comparative analysis of published results.

Both our CEO and CTO were involved in a gut-brain study published in the prestigious Nature Aging, led by the John Cryan Lab at APC Microbiome Ireland. By transplanting microbes from young into old animals it was possible to rejuvenate aspects of brain and immune function. This could be a potential game changer, as the microbiome could be harnessed to reverse age-related brain deterioration. There was also evidence of improved learning ability and cognitive function

The team of SeqBiome CTO, Prof Paul Cotter, have continued to be very active in recent months publishing multiple papers relating to food chain, food, animal and human microbiomes. This includes the monitoring of the microbiomes foods (here, here and here), food processing facilities, porcine, vaginal, and lung microbiomes, as well as the impact of diet on human gut microbiomes (here and here).  

The use of Machine Learning (ML) carries enormous potential, but also challenges, for making the most out of microbiome studies. SeqBiome CEO is also Chair of the EU COST Action ML4Microbiome who recently published two reviews in Frontiers in Microbiology on the current state-of-the-art of ML in microbiome research, read more here and here.

As the only Irish participant, SeqBiome is one of 10 start-ups selected from over 200 applicants to partake in the prestigious PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator program.

The program, which is now in its fifth year, seeks to support the acceleration of ingredients, products or services that encourage a healthy lifestyle and enable health management and wellness on a global scale.

This accelerator program will help SeqBiome to develop our microbiome expertise into a competitive offering to both professional and amateur health, as well as sports-focused consumers, to improve or maintain their physical and mental performance

Read more in the Forbes.

SeqBiome CTO and co-founder Prof Paul Cotter leads the Irish Coronavirus Sequencing Consortium, see here for more details. There is also an interview in the Irish Examiner about the consortium and Paul also provided an overview of the consortium for RTE’s ‘10Things to Know About’ programme.

Paul Cotter, SeqBiome CTO, was one of the 33 Ireland-based researchers to be named on Clarivate’s 2020 list of Highly Cited researchers. This is the third consecutive year that Paul was included on this list.