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Metabolon, King's College London Partner to Study Twin Microbiomes

NEW YORK — Metabolon said on Tuesday that it has partnered with King's College London to perform metabolomics analysis on registry samples from TwinsUK, a project collecting specimens and clinical data on over 15,000 adult identical and nonidentical twins from across the UK.

Through the alliance, Metabolon will analyze data from global metabolomics and targeted short-chain fatty acid assays on fecal, blood, urine, and saliva samples collected by TwinsUK, which is based out of King's College London. The partners will also analyze clinical data and compare previous metabolomics research studies with the TwinsUK dataset.

The work, Metabolon said, will provide insights into the relationship between the gut microbial community and human health.

"The addition of metabolomics to this already-rich dataset will allow our researchers to study the intersection of genes, environment, and phenotype to reveal biomarkers of interest," Metabolon CSO Rangaprasad Sarangarajan said in a statement. "The interpretation of those findings will support a greater understanding of diseases and better inform successful drug development."

Earlier this year, Morrisville, North Carolina-based Metabolon partnered with FinnGen, Finland's public-private population health research project that is aimed at improving health outcomes through genomic information and digital healthcare data, to study how disease-associated genetic variants affect the metabolic profiles of their carriers.

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