AnimalBiome Microbial Discovery Lab

AnimalBiome is excited to share the development of its latest project, the Microbial Discovery Laboratory. The development of this lab will help AnimalBiome achieve the goal to better understand the communities of microbes that inhabit animals, also known as the animal microbiome. This effort will lead to the discovery of bacteria that are significant in animal health and will allow for the development of therapeutic microbial cocktails.

In the AnimalBiome Microbial Discovery Laboratory, we plan to harness the Culturomics methods and identify microbial species that are significant in animal health including new bacteria never cultured. Through identification of these bacteria, AnimalBiome will be creating a unique collection of living microbes. Associated with a robust database of over 15,000 samples (from over 10,000 individual animals) from diverse health statuses, AnimalBiome will be in a unique position to conduct with its scientific partners advanced research studies on the microbiome of companion animals to propose sustainable health solutions for pets.

The therapeutic potential of selected microorganisms to prevent or treat disease is proven to be effective and safe both in humans and animals. However, few laboratories at this point have the capability to isolate living bacteria due to the difficulty to culture most bacteria from the microbiome.

This laboratory is the first of its kind within the companion animal industry. This gives AnimalBiome a unique position to develop a new generation of live biotherapeutic products and help the scientific community to better understand the dynamics of the pets’ microbiome.

This project is in part supported through a collaborative investment with Cargill and is directed by Niokhor Dione, DVM, PhD. Dr. Dione has prior experience from a diverse set of microbial research settings, including the University of Marseille (France), where he was integral in the development of “Culturomics,” a novel technique to identify bacterial species from the human microbiome. After further refining these methods, first at Laval University (Canada) and then at Stanford University where he was part of the Stanford Microbiome Therapies Initiatives (MITI), Dr. Dione joined the team at AnimalBiome to leverage these techniques within the field of animal health.