We are delighted to have contributed to the positive outcomes from the Freya Bioscience’s first Phase 1 clinical study of its lead asset FB101, which is an investigational immunotherapeutic targeting vaginal microbial dysbiosis. Together also with Atlantia Clinical Trials, we evaluated the longitudinal change in the vaginal microbiome after vaginal administration of FB101 in women with asymptomatic vaginal tract dysbiosis, and found that FB101 let to a rapid and sustained switch from a dysbiotic to a Lactobacillus-dominated microbiome. Half of the women showed that engraftment of the Lactobacilli species was established, as determined by strain-level engraftment analysis. Freya intends to expand studies of FB101 for improving fertility outcomes and enhancing the success rates of IVF.

Read more in the Microbiome Times.

Our CTO is the last author in a recently published study in Nature Communications, the most in-depth investigation to date of mother-to-infant transmission of common gut bacteria. The project that is titled MicrobeMum shows that the transfer of gut bacteria from a mother to an infant is a common phenomenon, which is strongly influenced by external factors including mode of delivery and exposure to antibiotics in labour. The findings could support the development of targeted probiotic supplements based on these bacteria, with potential benefits to boost immune systems, increase microbial infection resistance, fight disease and even aid digestion.

SeqBiome is proud to have sponsored a conference on the next-generation bioinformatics tools for microbiome research hosted at the beautiful Aula Maxima at University College Cork. It was hosted jointly by one of the world’s largest microbiome institutes APC Microbiome Ireland and the COST Action ML4Microbiome, which is led by CEO Marcus Claesson and has 170 members across 35 countries. The aim of this 4-year Action is to optimise, standardise and disseminate best practice of Machine Learning for analysing human microbiome data.

In addition to progressing this highly cross-disciplinary field and network, ML4Microbiome has trained a large number of young researchers in these sciences, whereas others have obtained means to carry out guest research projects across European labs.

Together with a team from the London Agri Food Innovation Clinic, SeqBiome showed that the effects on the microbiome of a three week consumption of the MOJU Prebiotic Shot drink. The drink contained a mixture of prebiotic fibres rich in polyphenols, which significantly changed gut microbiota alpha and beta diversity in healthy individuals, resulting an increase of the beneficial bacteria Bifidobacterium adolesentis and Lachnospiraceae CAG-81 sp900066785. People generally are not consuming enough dietary fibre, and there is disparity between what we eat and what we think we eat. These encouraging results demonstrate the tangible benefit of a convenient daily fibre top-up in the form of a functional fruit juice drink with a mixture of prebiotic fibres.

The study was published in Foods.

Together with colleagues at Atlantia Clinical Trials and DSM Nutritional Products we have investigated how polyphenol-rich extracts modulate the gut microbiota conferring cardiovascular benefits to humans. The 4 week supplementation with the water-soluble tomato extract Fruitflow® led to decreased trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) levels in fasting blood and urine, along with significant changes in microbiome composition. The results (published in the Journal of Nutrition) support earlier findings that polyphenol-rich extracts can lower plasma TMAO in overweight and obese adults related to gut microbiota modulation.

Over the past decade advances in technology and understanding have progressed the microbiome arena into a multi-billion-euro industry. SeqBiome which has unparalleled experience and expertise in the space is a major beneficiary of this expansion and is now working with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical, biotech and food companies across Europe and the USA. In anticipation of further growth, the Company is strengthening its board of directors.
Serving as a Non-Executive Board Director, Frank will bring 30-years of experience building shareholder-value in early-stage companies.
“The ability to quickly and expertly analyse a diverse range of microbiomes is a really timely proposition. A wide variety of life-sciences companies, from pharma to food, are interested in developing new microbiome-related products and services. SeqBiome is at the leading edge of this trend, and I am excited to join their board and help drive growth and an outcome for all shareholders”, said Frank Walsh, newly nominated to join The SeqBiome Board of Directors.
“I am absolutely delighted that we crossed paths and now have Frank on our side to help take Seqbiome to new heights. Frank has been on the start-up journey across so many companies we are delighted to be able to tap into his network and knowledge”, said Marcus Claesson, co-founder and CEO of SeqBiome.

A new publication, led by SeqBiome’s Marcus O’Brien, entitled ‘The Athlete Gut Microbiome and its Relevance to Health and Performance: A Review’ was published today in the highly regarded peer review journal Sports Medicine. The review notes that multiple studies have shown a potential bidirectional relationship between exercise and the gut microbiome, with some studies demonstrating the possibility of influencing this relationship. Importantly, this could provide a useful route to influence athletic performance via microbiome manipulation, a valuable prospect for many elite athletes and their teams.

We are thrilled that both our CEO and CTO are now among the 35 Irish scientists on the Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate in 2022! This list features the researchers in the top 1% of the Web of Science citation index and recognises pioneers in their field whose citation records position them in the very highest strata of research influence and impact. 

SeqBiome is delighted to expand the executive team with Dr Jim Collins as our new Chief Operating Officer! Jim has over 20 years of international experience in the development and scale-up of genome analysis technologies for genetic testing applications. Prior to joining SeqBiome, he led the development and deployment of sequencing-based tests with a focus on women’s health at Invitae, a genetic testing company based in San Francisco. Before that, Jim directed the development of technologies for non-invasive prenatal screening at Singular Bio (acquired by Invitae) and CellScape and platform technologies for genomic analysis at Complete Genomics, Affymetrix and Agilent. Jim holds BSc and PhD degrees in Microbiology from University College Cork.

A joint publication by Nestle Research and SeqBiome has provided new insights into the relationship between the microbial community of water kefir and flavour. Yet another example of the relevance of the microbiome when developing new functional foods. Highlights include

• A temporal characterization of a model water kefir using multi-omics approaches.
• Revealing the high prevalence of Z. mobilis and discovery of two potential new Curvibacter species in the samples.
• Identification of a unique chemical profile, dominated by gluconic acid.
• Uncovering microbial contributors to water kefir flavours obtained through omics correlation.
• And, ultimately, providing, important insights that will enable large scale water kefir production.

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.