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

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Vancouver, British Columbia (September 12, 2018)—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. “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.

See the original BusinessWire press release here.

How Microbiome Insights can help with your Canadian microbiome research grant application

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Competition for funding can be tough—but if you’re applying to a Canadian granting agency to fund a microbiome study, the Microbiome Insights team will be pleased to help. Some granting agencies require you to name an industry partner—and as the leading Canadian industry partner dedicated to microbiome testing and bioinformatic analysis, we are positioned to help your application be as successful as possible.

Here are some frequently asked questions about how we can help with microbiome research grant applications in Canada.

What kinds of testing does Microbiome Insights do?

Microbiome Insights has a full suite of sequencing options—some of which may not be readily available at your own institution. Our services include amplicon sequencing (16S V4, 16S V1-V3, 16S V4_skin, 18S, ITS2 and Archaeal V4-V5), shotgun metagenomics, and bacterial whole genome sequencing; in addition to sequencing we run short-chain fatty acid analyses and calprotectin testing. If these are relevant to your research, please contact us for more information on pricing, turnaround time, and support. Feel free to include our details in your grant application to show you’ve got everything lined up and ready to go for your research.

How flexible are the services?

While an end-to-end service is appealing to some, it doesn’t suit everyone. We can provide the full end-to-end service if needed or we can provide only the parts that make sense to you: for example, if you’re interested in learning more about bioinformatics yourself, you can obtain raw data from our team and explore the data on your own. Under this model, you’ll be able to leverage our wet lab standards while continuing to grow your own understanding of the microbiome.

Everything we do it price sensitive, so we have the ability charge per sample rather than having you lock into a full plate or a full run.

How can partnering with Microbiome Insights make the grant application stronger?

Including us in your grant applications shows you have strong collaborators and leading expertise on your side, bridging to the knowledge of our team and our co-founders (Drs. Brett Finlay and Bill Mohn). Through us, you’ll be able to secure expertise and support in the areas where you need it, and you’ll be able to access industry standards and proven pipelines. Moreover, you can be assured that all of this is done in Canada, with leading Canadian experts in the field.

What specific assistance can the Microbiome Insights team offer for grant applications?

We’ll consult with you to better understand (and draft, if necessary) the study design. We can give you guidelines on collection and transport to insert into your application, and can provide a mock report of the results if required. Our team members can also be hired to write a detailed results or methods section for your application.

Most importantly, we also offer a letter of support which details your study objectives, our deliverables for services and reporting, along with workflows and pricing. These details are key features of your submission, and we are always able to edit the details as funding is released.

How many Microbiome Insights clients come from academia?

The majority of our clients at present come from academia and publish their results in leading journals. If you choose to partner with us, you’ll have access to the same exceptional team that’s used by well-known researchers worldwide.

Contact us today!