uBiome Archives - Omics Help Desk

15Oct '19

When science discovers new links between our health, the bacteria in our gut, what we eat, our brain functions, and our moods, people pay attention. Microbiome research has uncovered those gut-brain-axis links after the National Institutes of Health launched a five-year, $150 million research effort, which in turn gave rise to several microbiome testing and research startups who received hundreds of millions in financing, among them Finch Therapeutics, Kallyope, Second Genome, which research specific diseases, and startups such as uBiome, Viome, Thryve, DayTwo selling direct-to-consumer testing kits for disease prevention. There is also a public, not-for-profit project called American Gut, which has the lowest price for sequencing people’s microbiome at $99 but is limited in its results. Microbiome testing, like all types of genome sequencing or genomics tests, sequences the DNA (or RNA) of living organisms, bacteria and other microbes in this case.

One of these companies, uBiome, will no longer be included in that list. uBiome raised $83 million in venture capital, and was worth a whopping $600 million at the start of 2019, making the deep dive they took recently to nothing more than a liquidation valuation even more dramatic. After a series of unfortunate events of their own making, uBiome got busted for bad accounting practices, and most recently, for faulty science. It has now filed for Chapter 7 with plans to shut down. As reported by FierceBiotech, CVS stores turned down stocking their shelves with uBiome’s at-home, Explorer microbiome consumer test, after the shocking news were revealed. Two weeks ago, Business Insider reported that uBiome lost their laboratory certifications, forcing them to stop their clinical tests activities. Perhaps worse than the accounting practices are the news that the Explorer test had been tainted by using a reference sequence database that included samples from minors, infants and at least one animal and that was populated by fecal samples volunteered by employees and participants from an online fundraiser.

Where is the Beef in a Vegan’s Microbiome Test Results?

patyb

Health

3Jun '19

Screenshot excerpts showing Miss Vegan’s and Q Bob’s Viome microbiome test results

A growing list of direct-to-consumer (DTC) microbiome genetic testing services have popped up in recent years since I first tested my own microbiome sample and wrote an article in Omicshelpdesk.com about it. If you are not familiar with the microbiome or with microbiome sequencing you might want to read that article first. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars in financing have been invested in microbiome testing startup companies like uBiome, Viome, Finch Therapeutics, Kallyope, Second Genome, Human Longevity, Maat Pharma, Seed.

Many of these startups are focused on nutrition and making diet recommendations as that is the most obvious application when studying gut bacteria which are in fact responsible for metabolizing the food we eat, and it is also the least risky business one may attempt at this still early stage of microbiome research. They all seem to have very nice reports and user interfaces from the screenshots I looked at. The one service I looked at more attentively this time around is Viome, by accessing the reports that a vegan friend allowed me to see in the Viome web site and app, which contained the results of her microbiome test. In this article I compare her results to those of a man who runs a personal blog called Quantified Bob. In his blog, Q Bob, as I will call him here, shares his experiences quantifying everything that can be measured in his body or about him.

But before presenting that comparison, I would like to bring some attention to two important inquiries we need to pursue before choosing and paying for a DTC microbiome test in order to assess its validity: (1) We should research if the technologies and methods the company uses have been validated; and (2) We should ask if the service offers access to the raw sequence data.

Fitness, Diet, Clinical, Genome, Microbiome Data, it is All Yours

patyb

Health

14Jul '16

gr1

There are ongoing efforts to merge your health data and have it in a central place. Other efforts involve transferring or exchanging your health data between hospitals and doctors and you look forward to not having to spend 20 minutes filling out the same paper form you filled out at another doctor’s office. Yes, that will happen, eventually. But should this central place that holds your data only serve your doctors or should the information it contains directly guide your life style and life choices? You have read that eventually, a smart computer will access your health data and make a faster, more accurate diagnosis or create a personalized treatment plan. You have read that such a system will make recommendations on your diet, your physical exercise regimen and even your social life and your career (work less, take time off). These recommendations will help you lead a happier, healthier and fuller life. It is already happening today, with apps like Fitbit and MyFitnessPal being pioneers in the field.

Today, doctors, clinics and hospitals have portions of your health data. It is spread across filing cabinets, devices, and the computers owned by these institutions. According to HIPPA regulations you can ask for that data but the data collected at a particular health provider belongs to him or her. Now consider this: 23andme and similar institutions have your genetic data but they don’t have your doctors’ health data. uBiome has your microbiome data but nothing else. Your Fitbit or similar fitness tracker has your fitness data but they don’t have your genetic data or your medical health history. You have been recording your weight and consumed calories in applications like MyFitnessPal, but nobody but you has that data. Ultimately, you have the right to access and own all that data and share it as you seem fit.

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