Biomarker Discovery

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Microbial biomarkers

Microbes can be biomarkers, just like metabolites and human genetics. The reasons for looking for microbial biomarkers are many. Perhaps you are conducting a study, and interested in detecting specific microbes associated with the outcome?

Screening for microbial biomarkers and analyzing microbiome profiles in studies hold the potential of increased control and reducing the risk resulting from a heterogenous population. Background data on the study cohort is generated to gain control and insight, and here microbiome data can be as relevant as other types of data.

The concept of microbial biomarkers is a new avenue for gaining control in clinical studies and moving towards personalized medicine.

Biomcare’s biomarker platform opens this field and takes you from A to Z, from sampling to a list of ranked biomarkers.

Your value:

  • A trusted partner for microbiome analysis
  • Increased control in your clinical studies
  • A ranked list of microbial biomarkers

 

Components of the microbiome, such as specific bacteria or bacterial enzymes, hold great potential as biomarkers. So far, this reservoir is largely unexploited for pharmaceutical and clinical development, despite the increasing understanding of the microbe’s effect on health, disease progression, and drug metabolism.

A platform for microbial biomarker discovery

At Biomcare we have developed a platform for A-to-Z microbial biomarker discovery. The platform builds on our established microbiome sequencing and analysis service, which supports an easy workflow from sample collection to the final statistical analysis. The analysis results in a list of ranked biomarkers and estimation of the predictive ability of the identified markers, as univariate or multivariate markers.

Biomcare is participating in the large NORDIC-SUN clinical trial by applying our infrastructure for sample collection, data processing, and integrated analysis, to identify key microbial factors that can help us understand why some patients respond well while others do not respond or develop severe side effects. The large clinical dataset we obtain from this study will be the largest microbiome dataset for studying the response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.

 

Research initiatives and collaborations

Biomcare actively supports and engages in research initiatives that bring the value of the microbiome closer to the clinic. We are always open to discussions of possible collaborations and to making our microbiome expertise available for research initiatives.

If you are planning or currently undertaking a clinical trial of a compound that might be influenced by the gut microbiome, we would like to hear from you. Such a drug is likely orally ingested and might depend on or affect the physiological structures, cells, metabolites, or hormones that are linked to the gut microbiome. Alternatively, the drug might be known to have variable drug responses not explained by human genetics.

How can insight into the gut microbiome improve the success rate of your clinical trial?

Analysis of the gut microbiome is increasingly becoming a part of clinical testing of pharmacological products, and for good reason: The human microbiome is personal – with high diversity between people and reasonably high stability within a person over time – and is highly involved in drug metabolism.

By analyzing the gut microbiome profile of patients in the trial, Biomcare can assess:

  • How important the gut microbiome is for drug response
  • Identify microbial biomarkers
  • Calculate how well the biomarkers predict drug response (e.g. separate high, low, or non-responders)

By incorporating the results from Biomcare’s analysis into your trial statistical analysis, you can learn if the microbiome is a key driver of varying drug responses and how it influences your efficacy profile.

By statistically stratifying participants retrospectively into high and low responders using the multimarker model developed by Biomcare, you learn if efficacy is dependent on microbiome profiles. This can improve your power and confidence in your results and provide a further understanding of physiological drug mechanisms.

Altogether, incorporating the gut microbiome analysis into your clinical trial holds the potential of increased control and reduced risk due to varying drug responses. Identification of predictive biomarkers can further facilitate the co-development of companion diagnostics and improve the competitive abilities of your drug on the market.

We refer to the following papers for further information: Doherty et al, 2017; Guthrie et al, 2017; Ananthakrishnan et al., 2017; Zimmermann et al., 2019

The role of the microbiome in drug metabolism

Varying drug response between patients is a dangerous and expensive challenge in the clinic due to significant treatment delays and adverse effects. Personalized medicine holds the promise to tackle these issues by incorporating companion diagnostics guided by predictive biomarkers in standard clinical practice.

Beyond causing extensive issues in the clinic, varying drug response is also a challenge in the development of new drugs as they can significantly affect the results of a clinical trial.

“To date, microbial strains and enzymes have been experimentally demonstrated to directly or indirectly impact the metabolism and efficacy of over 50 therapeutic drugs, driving inter-patient variability in drug activation, inactivation, and toxicity” (Guthrie and Kelly, 2019)

Evidence is growing for the importance of the human microbiota in the clinic, both for numerous common diseases, and as a factor in the inter-individual variation in drug response, digestion of food, and regulation of the immune system. At Biomcare we focus our attention on the role of the microbiome in drug response. The gut microbiome influences the bioavailability, toxicity, and responsiveness of a patient to a given drug. With the vast genetic diversity harbored in our microbiome that far exceeds our human genetic variation, we see the microbiome as a reservoir of predictive biomarkers. But harvesting this information takes specialized knowledge and experience.

Biomcare welcomes all expressions of interest and comments. Please send us an E-mail, use the contact form or call us.

Contact information and forms are found here: Contact Biomcare.

We used Biomcare to analyze paired human faecal samples from a clinical trial.

… I can strongly recommend the company.

Sidsel Støy

M.D., Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Aarhus University Hospital

Solving your microbiome problems

We have more than +7 years of experience in analyzing microbiome data and structuring microbiome projects. Our team has worked on more than 75 microbiome projects spanning research, universities and commercial industries.

Biomcare offers both microbiome services for small discovery projects, as well as large custom-designed microbiome projects.

Contact us today and get a quote. We are standing by to service you.