MyMetabolon Login
© 2020 Metabolon, Inc. All rights reserved.
Metabolon Metabolon
  • Metabolomics
    • About Metabolomics
    • Our Process
    • Technology & Knowledgebase
    • Setting the Standard: The 4Cs
    • Our Latest Insights
  • Solutions
    • Column 1
      • Products & Services
        • Global Metabolomics
        • Lipidomics
        • Targeted Assays
        • Study Design & Consulting
        • Sample Preparation & Handling
        • Study Success Sample Handling Kit
        • Reporting & Interpretation
        • Bioinformatics
        • MyMetabolon Client Portal
    • Column 2
      • By Research & Development Phase
        • Discovery & Target Selection
        • Lead Candidate Selection
        • Preclinical
        • Clinical Development
        • Manufacturing & Bioprocessing
    • Column 3
      • By Therapeutic Area
        • Cardiovascular Disease
        • COVID-19
        • Diabetes
        • Gastrointestinal
        • Liver Disease
        • Microbiome
        • Neuroscience
        • Oncology
        • Renal & Urological Disorders
        • Respiratory Disorders
    • Column 4
      • By Sector
        • Academic
        • Agriculture
        • Biotech / Pharmaceutical
        • Precision Medicine
        • Nutrition
        • Personal Care & Cosmetics
        • Population Health
        • Veterinary & Animal Health
  • Insights
    • Our Latest Insights
    • Blog
    • News & Events
  • Resources
    • Resource Library
    • Client Stories
    • COVID-19
  • Company
    • About Us
    • Working With Us (FAQ)
    • Leadership
    • Careers
    • Strategic Partnering
    • News & Events
    • Contact Us
MyMetabolon
Demo Our Data
Metabolon
Demo Our Data

Client Story:

Institute for Systems Biology

Metabolon helps Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) decode the connection between gut microbiome and blood.

Dr. Sean M. Gibbons
Dr. Sean M. Gibbons
Assistant Professor at ISB, Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Investigator

“Living in a microscopic world, cells communicate with each other by speaking in small molecules. We’re seeing a conversation happen between the microbiome and body, and metabolomics allows us to listen to the language spoken by the microbiome to the body.”

Talk With an Expert About Your Project
Watch the Interview

ISB was founded in 2000 as the first-ever institute dedicated to systems biology. The Seattle based non-profit organization is committed to collaborative and cross-disciplinary biomedical research. Focusing on translational science, it is focused on generating scientific results that deliver real-world clinical impact. An affiliate of Providence St. Joseph Health, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health care systems, ISB has focused its research on pressing issues in human health like brain health, cancer, sepsis and aging and many chronic and infectious diseases. The microbiome may play an important role in many of these conditions.

Metabolon and the Institute for Systems Biology have a long-lasting partnership investigating the basis behind personal health and wellbeing or disease via metabolomics. Many exciting findings have come out of this work spanning the cumulative effects of the environment, diet & nutrition, as well as the microbiome and the contributions each has on human physiology.

Metabolomics was a key tool that ISB researchers used throughout their work to predict gut microbiome alpha-diversity, which holds many clues to understanding human health. Now those clues are more accessible because ISB researchers can predict the diversity of an individual’s gut microbiome by examining metabolites in the blood. While other technologies are used frequently to associate the strains of bacteria present in a microbiome sample with disease, determining the causal relationship can be a daunting challenge. Metabolomics offered the ISB team unique insight to determine mechanism by revealing metabolites at the apex of function that can then be directly tested to establish causation. Compared to genomics, which primarily provides information about a biochemical’s potential, metabolomics helped ISB researchers understand the function.

By analyzing the de-identified multi-omic data from several hundred consenting participants in a consumer scientific wellness program, ISB researchers found that they can predict the health-associated alpha diversity of the gut microbiome by using a model trained on 40 circulating blood metabolites. Additionally, they can classify people with low gut diversity as being potentially susceptible to diseases like Clostridium difficile (C. diff) by using an 11-metabolite model.

Metabolon helped ISB researchers uncover three key insights to decode the blood alpha-diversity in humans:

  1. The gut microbiome reflection in human blood
    Researchers observed an intimate connection between what’s happening metabolically in the gut and the blood, driving the scientists to measure the compositional structure of the microbes in the gut by looking in the blood. “It points more and more to the idea that the gut microbiome is an endocrine organ,” said Dr. Gibbons. “Just like the liver produces metabolites that are circulating around our bodies, so too does the microbiome. It’s another drop in the bucket for why the microbiome is important to understand the health and wellness of our bodies.”Metabolomics can provide a powerful view of the circulating microbiota-derived metabolites in the blood. These metabolites produced by the bacteria can profoundly influence the physiology of the host. If you ignore the details in the blood, you may be missing crucial information like the connections of the gut-brain axis.
  2. The “ideal” levels of diversity
    Historically, the assumption was the more diversity the better; but Dr. Gibbons cautions that alpha diversity is more complicated than we initially thought. This realization suggests that there is an optimal “just right” or “Goldilocks” zone of gut microbiome diversity – decreased diversity correlates with symptoms of diarrhea and inflammation, while elevated diversity is associated with constipation and potentially harmful protein fermentation metabolites.The application of metabolomics allowed ISB researchers to see that protein fermentation products were building up in the bloodstream of people with high alpha diversity who suffered from constipation. Generally speaking, the largest energy input to the microbiome is usually fiber. If the microbiome ferments all the available fiber, it will start to starve and switch the metabolism to fermenting protein. The fermentation of proteins by the gut microbiome may be associated with bad health outcomes such as cancer and heart disease. ISB researchers were able to use metabolomics to identify that protein fermentation was happening in some study participants with high alpha diversity.
  3. BMI Changes Norms
    The caveat ISB researchers observed was that their model didn’t hold true for parts of the population, so they stratified for body mass index (BMI). They found that anyone with a BMI of 35 and above — indicating significant obesity — was not predicted well by this model, suggesting a key interaction of obesity and the gut microbiome.

By using metabolomics, “we were able to see the metabolic relationship between the gut microbiome and blood, and we saw that relationship break down in people with high obesity. In that group there was a different set of metabolites associated with the microbiome, which points to a different kind of conversation going on between the molecules produced by the microbiota and the molecules circulating in the bloodstream.”

– Dr. Sean M. Gibbons, a co-corresponding author on Blood Metabolome Predicts Gut Microbiome α-diversity in Humans

Thanks to the ISB team and metabolomics, many new research doors have been opened, including the potential to develop a simple, clinical blood test to measure alpha diversity in the gut.

Back to Client Stories
  • Client Story: Sassone-Corsi Lab at the University of California, Irvine
    Previous ProjectClient Story: Sassone-Corsi Lab at the University of California, Irvine

Metabolomics

  • About Metabolomics
  • Our Process
  • Technology & Knowledgebase
  • Setting the Standard: The 4Cs
  • Insights & Discoveries

Solutions

  • Products & Services
  • By Research & Development Phase
  • By Therapeutic Area
  • By Sector

Insights

  • Our Latest Insights
  • Blog
  • News & Events

Resources

  • Resource Library
  • Client Stories
  • COVID-19

Company

  • About Us
  • Working With Us (FAQ)
  • Leadership
  • Careers
  • Strategic Partnering
  • News & Events
  • Contact Us
Metabolon - Logo - Enlightening Life

Metabolon provides actionable biological insights to answer the toughest questions in life sciences research and drug development.

© 2021 Metabolon, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy & Terms

in
Copy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.