OpenBiome

Last updated
OpenBiome
Focus Health
Location
  • Massachusetts
Chief Executive Officer
Julie Barrett O'Brien
Website www.openbiome.org

OpenBiome is a nonprofit health research organization based in Massachusetts accelerating research on the human microbiome. They partner with leading researchers, clinicians and innovators to advance and ensure access to novel and affordable microbiome therapeutics.

Contents

History

OpenBiome distributes material to hospitals and clinics to support the treatment of C. difficile , the most common pathogen causing hospital-acquired infection in the U.S. [1] OpenBiome provides frozen preparations of screened and filtered human stool for use in fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) therapies. In collaboration with their manufacturing partners at the University of Minnesota, OpenBiome provides clinicians with two different liquid formulations of fecal microbiota: MTP101-LR, to treat recurrent C. difficile infection unresponsive to standard therapies, and MTP101-LF, a high-dose formulation intended to treat severe-fulminantC. difficile. As of February 2024, OpenBiome had provided over 70,000 treatments to all 50 states. [2]

OpenBiome was founded in 2012 by Mark Smith, a microbiology student at MIT, and James Burgess, an MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. [3] It is the first public stool bank, and was founded to facilitate use of FMT. [4] The logistical burdens associated with screening and processing fecal material have made it difficult for clinicians to offer FMT to patients with recurrent C. difficile infections. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulcerative colitis</span> Inflammatory bowel disease that causes ulcers in the colon

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the other type being Crohn's disease. It is a long-term condition that results in inflammation and ulcers of the colon and rectum. The primary symptoms of active disease are abdominal pain and diarrhea mixed with blood (hematochezia). Weight loss, fever, and anemia may also occur. Often, symptoms come on slowly and can range from mild to severe. Symptoms typically occur intermittently with periods of no symptoms between flares. Complications may include abnormal dilation of the colon (megacolon), inflammation of the eye, joints, or liver, and colon cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human microbiome</span> Microorganisms in or on human skin and biofluids

The human microbiome is the aggregate of all microbiota that reside on or within human tissues and biofluids along with the corresponding anatomical sites in which they reside, including the gastrointestinal tract, skin, mammary glands, seminal fluid, uterus, ovarian follicles, lung, saliva, oral mucosa, conjunctiva, and the biliary tract. Types of human microbiota include bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses. Though micro-animals can also live on the human body, they are typically excluded from this definition. In the context of genomics, the term human microbiome is sometimes used to refer to the collective genomes of resident microorganisms; however, the term human metagenome has the same meaning.

<i>Clostridioides difficile</i> infection Disease caused by C. difficile bacteria

Clostridioides difficile infection, also known as Clostridium difficile infection, is a symptomatic infection due to the spore-forming bacterium Clostridioides difficile. Symptoms include watery diarrhea, fever, nausea, and abdominal pain. It makes up about 20% of cases of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Antibiotics can contribute to detrimental changes in gut microbiota; specifically, they decrease short-chain fatty acid absorption which results in osmotic, or watery, diarrhea. Complications may include pseudomembranous colitis, toxic megacolon, perforation of the colon, and sepsis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colitis</span> Inflammation of the colon (large intestine)

Colitis is swelling or inflammation of the large intestine (colon). Colitis may be acute and self-limited or long-term. It broadly fits into the category of digestive diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clostridia</span> Class of bacteria

The Clostridia are a highly polyphyletic class of Bacillota, including Clostridium and other similar genera. They are distinguished from the Bacilli by lacking aerobic respiration. They are obligate anaerobes and oxygen is toxic to them. Species of the class Clostridia are often but not always Gram-positive and have the ability to form spores. Studies show they are not a monophyletic group, and their relationships are not entirely certain. Currently, most are placed in a single order called Clostridiales, but this is not a natural group and is likely to be redefined in the future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gut microbiota</span> Community of microorganisms in the gut

Gut microbiota, gut microbiome, or gut flora are the microorganisms, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses, that live in the digestive tracts of animals. The gastrointestinal metagenome is the aggregate of all the genomes of the gut microbiota. The gut is the main location of the human microbiome. The gut microbiota has broad impacts, including effects on colonization, resistance to pathogens, maintaining the intestinal epithelium, metabolizing dietary and pharmaceutical compounds, controlling immune function, and even behavior through the gut–brain axis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferring Pharmaceuticals</span> Pharmaceutical multinational company

Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a Swiss multinational biopharmaceutical company specialising in areas such as reproductive health, maternal health, gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fecal microbiota transplant</span> Process of transplantation of fecal bacteria from a healthy individual into a recipient

Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT), also known as a stool transplant, is the process of transferring fecal bacteria and other microbes from a healthy individual into another individual. FMT is an effective treatment for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). For recurrent CDI, FMT is more effective than vancomycin alone, and may improve the outcome after the first index infection.

Thomas J. Borody is an Australian gastroenterologist.

Dysbiosis is characterized by a disruption to the microbiome resulting in an imbalance in the microbiota, changes in their functional composition and metabolic activities, or a shift in their local distribution. For example, a part of the human microbiota such as the skin flora, gut flora, or vaginal flora, can become deranged, with normally dominating species underrepresented and normally outcompeted or contained species increasing to fill the void. Similar to the human gut microbiome, diverse microbes colonize the plant rhizosphere, and dysbiosis in the rhizosphere, can negatively impact plant health. Dysbiosis is most commonly reported as a condition in the gastrointestinal tract or plant rhizosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human feces</span> Metabolic waste of the human digestive system

Human feces or faeces British English), commonly and in medical literature more often called stool, are the solid or semisolid remains of food that could not be digested or absorbed in the small intestine of humans, but has been further broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. It also contains bacteria and a relatively small amount of metabolic waste products such as bacterially altered bilirubin, and the dead epithelial cells from the lining of the gut. It is discharged through the anus during a process called defecation.

Bacteriotherapy is the purposeful use of bacteria or their products in treating an illness. Forms of bacteriotherapy include the use of probiotics, microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed; fecal matter transplants (FMT) /intestinal microbiota transplant (IMT), the transfer of gut microorganisms from the fecal matter of healthy donors to recipient patients to restore microbiota; or synbiotics which combine prebiotics, indigestible ingredients that promote growth of beneficial microorganisms, and probiotics. Through these methods, the gut microbiota, the community of 300-500 microorganism species that live in the digestive tract of animals aiding in digestion, energy storage, immune function and protection against pathogens, can be recolonized with favorable bacteria, which in turn has therapeutic effects.

<i>Clostridioides difficile</i> Species of bacteria

Clostridioides difficile is a bacterium known for causing serious diarrheal infections, and may also cause colon cancer. It is known also as C. difficile, or C. diff, and is a Gram-positive species of spore-forming bacteria. Clostridioides spp. are anaerobic, motile bacteria, ubiquitous in nature and especially prevalent in soil. Its vegetative cells are rod-shaped, pleomorphic, and occur in pairs or short chains. Under the microscope, they appear as long, irregular cells with a bulge at their terminal ends. Under Gram staining, C. difficile cells are Gram-positive and show optimum growth on blood agar at human body temperatures in the absence of oxygen. C. difficile is catalase- and superoxide dismutase-negative, and produces up to three types of toxins: enterotoxin A, cytotoxin B and Clostridioides difficile transferase. Under stress conditions, the bacteria produce spores that are able to tolerate extreme conditions that the active bacteria cannot tolerate.

Michael Seth Silverman is a Canadian specialist in HIV/AIDS and infectious disease and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Saint Joseph’s Health Centre and London Health Sciences Centre, at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada.

"Turd Burglars" is the eighth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series South Park. The 305th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on November 27, 2019.

Colleen S. Kraft is an infectious disease physician, associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and the director of the Clinical Virology Research Laboratory at Emory University School of Medicine. In 2014, she led Emory University Hospital's effort to treat and care for Ebola virus disease patients and is currently working to address the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia. She currently serves on Georgia's COVID-19 task force.

Checkpoint inhibitor induced colitis is an inflammatory condition affecting the colon (colitis), which is caused by cancer immunotherapy. Symptoms typically consist of diarrhea, abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. Less commonly, nausea and vomiting may occur, which may suggest the present of gastroenteritis. The severity of diarrhea and colitis are graded based on the frequency of bowel movements and symptoms of colitis, respectively.

Michael J. Sadowsky is an American microbiologist at the University of Minnesota. He is the director of the BioTechnology Institute and a Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate. Sadowsky's scientific career spans over 40 years, most of it focused on research studying the nature of bacteria and bacterial genes in ecological settings, with a particular emphasis on soil bacteria that are involved in nitrogen fixation.

Fecal microbiota, sold under the brand name, Rebyota is used for the prevention of recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection.

Live fecal microbiota spores, sold under the brand name Vowst, is a fecal microbiota product used to prevent the recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection.

References

  1. Magill, SS; Edwards, JR; Bamberg, W; Beldavs, ZG; Dumyati, G; Kainer, MA; Lynfield, R; Maloney, M; McAllister-Hollod, L; Nadle, J; Ray, SM; Thompson, DL; Wilson, LE; Fridkin, SK (27 Mar 2014). "Multistate point-prevalence survey of health care-associated infections". N Engl J Med. 370 (13): 1198–1208. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1306801. PMC   4648343 . PMID   24670166.
  2. Gastroenterology, Healio; January 2017. "Onsite with OpenBiome". www.healio.com. Retrieved 13 January 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. Glenn, David (3 Feb 2014). "Student-led Project Banks on Promise of Fecal Transplants". The Chronicle for Higher Education. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  4. Smith, Peter Andrey (17 Feb 2014). "A New Kind of Transplant Bank". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  5. Johnson, Carolyn (24 Feb 2014). "Fecal transplant safety is goal of stool bank". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 14 July 2014.