High Resolution Microbiome Profiling System

Shoreline Biome is developing kits methods and software as part of a comprehensive high resolution amplicon microbiome profiling system that revolutionizes ease of use while solving several problems with current S rRNA gene microbiome protocols The entire bp rRNA ITS gene space is targeted permitting veteran researchers to compare directly to previous assays encompassing any portion of the S gene while gaining new insights from higher resolution datasets New entrants into the microbiome space can access a proven off the shelf high resolution assay without having to decide on assay designs with more limited coverage Inclusion of the ITS region opens added diversity that can more easily differentiate strains with similar or identical S regions Shoreline Biome s partnership with the Roche Sequencing Unit a leading Next Generation Sequencing NGS hardware developer enables multiplexing of samples on a novel long read high throughput NGS platform a combination of throughput and resolution previously unavailable Researchers beginning or expanding their microbiome research will be able to use Shoreline Biome Software Analysis Tools to profile and compare up to separate fecal microbiomes in a single sequencing run The system will be tested in partnership with the Weinstock Laboratory at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine on their Multiple Sclerosis MS mouse microbiome samples and on gut microbiome MS samples from the Hafler Lab at Yale Following microbiome effects on well defined MS neurological pathways can serve as a template for studying how changes to the microbiome influence other neurological disorders including those that may be less well understood associated with the gut brain axis The microbes in the human microbiome have co evolved with humans and are being shown to play key roles in almost all areas of human health and disease Increasingly researchers in all disciplines want to explore effects of the microbiome in their area of research opening new avenues of inquiry that present huge opportunities for discovery However new investigators immediately encounter significant obstacles to launching their exploration of the microbiome obstacles that the products in this proposal are designed to address by enabling a rapid high resolution view of the microbiome easily accessible to new entrants in the field