Second Genome, a venture-backed Bay Area based life sciences company, is committed to improving the quality of human health through microbiome-based personalized medicine. Read More
Every year the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) identifies the world’s most innovative technologies for their Better World Report. This year’s report, “Respond, Recover, Restructure: Technologies Helping the World in the Face of Adversity” features 23 innovations that have changed the way we live and includes our PhyloChip technology in the category of “Technologies to Improve Health” section. The report features the story of how PhyloChip was developed at...
The defining characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are impairments in cognition and social function. However, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms have also been observed to be present in many individuals with ASD and the presence of those symptoms has been correlated with autism severity. Indeed, dietary modification and treatment with vancomycin have been reported to improve the social and cognitive function of autistic children. A recent study by Dr. Brent Williams and colleagues,...
The metabolism of drugs, and therefore their effects, can vary widely from person to person and attempts to understand the genetic and phenotypic reasons behind this have led to the rise of the field of pharmacogenomics. Unfortunately, not only can genetic differences result in altered drug metabolism but also environmental factors such as gut bacterial activity, disease, and age. To counter this fact a pharmacometabonomic approach has been suggested that takes into account measurements...