Read NowOver the last decade, the microbiome has shifted from a scientific curiosity to one of the most promising frontiers in biology and medicine. Whether it’s gut microbes that influence the host’s metabolism, an oral microbe that prevents cavities, or a microbial consortium that improves immunotherapy response in cancer—each discovery brings growing excitement.As the excitement has grown, so too has the realization that identifying microbes is only part of the story. Preserving microbial viability and physiological relevance—particularly with regard to anaerobes and microaerophiles—throughout collection, transport, and cultivation is a critical prerequisite for accurately measuring microbial behavior.The field is also shifting from descriptive microbiome research towards mechanistic understanding—using metabolic phenotyping, which directly measures microbial activity including nutrient and substrate utilization, cell growth, stress response, and more. Because only when we truly understand how microbes behave can we begin to shape them into powerful tools for healing.Next generation sequencing (NGS) has transformed our ability to identify which species are present in a microbial community (“who’s there”) and what they may potentially be capable of. However, gene presence does not guarantee gene expression or necessarily reflect real-world activity (“what the microbes are doing”). Two strains may carry similar metabolic genes yet behave very differently under gutrelevant conditions.These are some of the important functional questions sequencing alone can’t answer:What metabolic pathways are actually active?How do the microbes adapt to various environments and interact?What is the optimal environment to produce critical metabolites?As the field pushes toward developing live biotherapeutic products, evidence-backed probiotics, and next-gen biomarkers, understanding these functional traits is essential.This eBook explores how researchers can move beyond correlation and towards mechanism in microbiome research—from preserving physiologically relevant microbial communities to directly measuring microbial function through phenotyping.The post Unlocking Microbiome Function with Anaerobic Workflows and Metabolic Phenotyping appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
Report Highlights Private Equity’s Lesser-Known Strategy: Nonprofit Joint Ventures
A new report finds private equity firms are increasingly using joint ventures with nonprofit health systems to expand in healthcare, prompting calls for greater oversight.
