NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Microbial biomarker technologies developer Second Genome has undertaken an initiative with American Gut, a multi-partner effort to characterize the microbial diversity of the gut, to study the possible roles the human microbiome may play in type 2 diabetes.
Under the initiative, Second Genome made a donation to American Gut of an undisclosed amount to fund specimen collection for participants who have type 2 diabetes, the company said.
American Gut is the world's largest open-source, community-driven effort to characterize microbiomes from ordinary people to support the study of connections between environmental factors and changes in the human microbiome.
"By working with the American Gut project and its preeminent group of microbiome scientists, we have the opportunity to accelerate the clinical impact of this citizen science effort to build the world's leading reference dataset of microbiomes," Second Genome President and CEO Peter DiLaura said in a statement.
"Second Genome is focusing on patients with type 2 diabetes as one part of its effort to translate microbiome science into the discovery and development of microbiome modulators with therapeutic potential," DiLaura added.
San Francisco-based Second Genome is developing a pipeline of microbiome modulators that can affect infection, immunity, and metabolic diseases that is based on novel technologies for identifying, screening, and validating microbial biomarkers.