Prime Movers Lab Webinar Series: The Microbiome

A conversation with entrepreneurs and experts on harnessing the microbiome for better health

In this episode of the Prime Movers Lab webinar series, we speak with experts on the microbiomes of plants and humans on where the field is today, why technology in this space is accelerating, and what they find most exciting about this incredibly wide field.

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Expert Panelists

Jason Green is the CEO and Cofounder of Upward Farms, a Brooklyn-based aquaponic vertical farm. Upward Farms grows leafy greens and fish with the highest ecological and quality standards so that everyone can nourish their body, family, and the planet. The company harnesses the power of the microbiome to dramatically reduce fertilizer use while improving the plant health, yield and nutrition of their indoor farms.

Dan Tomso is the Chief Business Officer at AgBiome, a biotechnology company that creates better microbes for better crops and a better world. He is a microbiologist by training and has decades of expertise in crop science and microbiology spanning international agricultural giants and startups.

Stephanie Culler is CEO and co-founder of Persephone Biosciences, which develops leading microbiome targeted therapeutics and technologies. Persephone Biosciences combines patient data, augmented intelligence and synthetic biology to enable gut microbiome treatments for cancer and in the fight against COVID19.

Brief Highlights from the Webinar

Here are just a few highlights and things I learned from our panelists’ responses. One thing that stood out to me were the many parallels that arose between the role of the microbiome in plants and people. For example:

• Both plants and humans rely on their resident microbes for nutrition. Most of the nutrients that we extract from our diet are made by the microbes in our guts. Similarly, plants don’t have all the genes they need to produce their own growth hormones or vitamins, or fight off environmental stress. The microbial organisms living in our guts, or the roots of plants, do this for us.
• A healthy microbiome dramatically increases the genes that plants (or people!) have access to. These genes make nutrients or antibiotic compounds, break down harmful molecules, or signal other cells. In “big biology” (humans, plants, and other large organisms) an incredible 40–60% of the genes that are active are actually genes in the microbes within us.
• In both plants and people, problems arise when the diversity of microbes (and their genes) goes down. Many people, due to antibiotics, illnesses, or aging, have lost critical microbes — “keystone species”. A disrupted or “dysbiotic” gut microbiome has been implicated in many diseases, and also how patients respond to treatment for cancer, autism, Parkinson’s, autoimmune disease. Our microbiome impacts the efficacy of over 50 FDA approved drugs.
• The situation in agriculture is similar. There are a billion microbes in just a tablespoon of healthy soil. In poorly managed soil, there are only about 10,000. This is a problem because these microbial communities perform so many important functions.

Why now? What factors have enabled the rapid growth in microbiome-related companies and technologies?

• Better Tools. Today, it is possible to do microbiology research “twice as fast for half the cost”. It’s hard to understate the importance of inexpensive DNA sequencing. Other “omics” technologies— ways to measure complex molecules — have been developed, allowing not just genes but the molecules they code for (metabolites) to be studied. Rather than looking at one or two microbes, companies can sequence and analyze thousands. Advances in computational power and tools, including machine learning, have also been key to handle and interpret the vast amount of microbiome data we now generate.
• Demand. Consumers are increasingly demanding for “free from” products: foods that are free from GMOs, synthetic pesticides, etc. In conventional agriculture, resistance to existing pesticides and other synthetic chemicals is increasing. Demand for new therapeutics in the fight against cancer and other diseases continues to increase, and better tools have allowed us to identify thousands of new candidates.
• Capital. Both the early successes of synthetic biology companies and the promise of a deep well of new drug and therapeutics candidates has already driven a lot of funding into microbiome-related companies.

What barriers still exist?

• In the growing field of microbiome-based human therapeutics, the data sets are still small — on the order of 100 patients or less. These patients may not reflect the entire population (age, ethnicity, pre-existing conditions).
• It is very hard to affect a whole plant or human ecosystem by changing one microbe. Even when the presence of a single microbe has a clear benefit, it may require other microbes to function. Only 1% of the microbes that have been identified in soil can be grown in a synthetic environment. In humans, some keystone species are absolutely critical for other microbes to function — once some of this frameworks disappear, the ecosystem can collapse.
• There is a need for standardization across the board — in sampling, analysis, reporting, and essentially all parts of microbiome-based research.

What actions can we take to optimize our own health?

• To improve our gut health, eat as close to the soil as possible. Eating more fiber — cereals, bananas, legumes, onions, and generally fruits and vegetables is important because fiber is actually a key “pre-biotic” that feeds our gut microbes. In western diets we tend to not get enough fiber.
• Live microbes (probiotics) can also help support a healthy gut. Instead of buying probiotics “off the shelf”, which aren’t regulated by the FDA, try fermented foods like sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, kimchi, and kombucha (my personal favorite, see below).
• Follow the advice of author Michael Pollan on this subject: “Eat real food, not too much, mostly plants” (and then ferment it).
• The role of fats in our health is just coming under the microscope. Lots of interesting science on the role of fat and the importance of certain fats.
• Educate ourselves and learn how our food system works. Look at the scale of food production. Consider which interventions could help right now — this is a key tip both for our personal lives and for investors to consider!

Optimizing my gut health (and staying busy during COVID-time) by brewing kombucha at home!

If you’d like to learn more, many of the topics we touched on in this webinar are covered in more detail in our blog posts on different topics related to the microbiome. These include an introduction to the Human Microbiome, How DNA Sequencing Started the Microbiome Revolution, Microbes as Medicine, and our thoughts on Investing in the Microbiome. For a basic refresher for all in your household, check out Prime Movers Lab Kids Corner: The Microbiome!

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and computing

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