Microbiome Insights receives funding from the Government of Canada to develop new microbiome testing platform for managing chronic disease

According to a news release on Business Wire, Microbiome Insights, Inc. is pleased to announce that it will receive a contribution of up to $190,249 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to help support the development of a new personal health platform of microbiome testing.

Co-founded by Drs. Brett Finlay and Bill Mohn at University of British Columbia in 2015, Microbiome Insights is a rapidly growing company and a global leader in microbiome testing and bioinformatic analysis. The advisory services and financial assistance from the Government of Canada, through NRC IRAP, will help the company expand in a new direction—continuing to develop tools for use in clinical settings as new data emerge on the gut microbiome and health.

“We’re leveraging our expertise in microbiome testing to develop a suite of tools for monitoring chronic disease in clinical practice,” says Microbiome Insights CEO Malcolm Kendall, in a news release. “From the practitioner interface to the educational components of the test, our team is taking a fresh approach that is going to change the game for microbiome testing.”

The primary aim of the company’s personal health platform is to help address the challenges both healthcare practitioners and individuals face in the management of chronic disease. Microbiome monitoring in those with chronic disease may provide a tool for assessing response to therapies or to various lifestyle changes (including diet), particularly when integrated with robust research findings and ongoing data collection.

The company’s new testing platform will be aimed at health practitioners helping individuals who live with inflammatory bowel disease. The efforts are led by Nataša Jovic, MBA, who brings to the company twenty years of experience in therapeutic and diagnostic commercialization. The company is currently exploring opportunities to commercialize its platform of microbiome tests for healthcare practitioners through research collaborations and distribution or joint commercialization efforts.