Technology Enablers Facilitating Microbiome Adoption in Research and Development

Microbiome research is on the rise following technological advancements and significant cost reductions in microbiome analysis. Research has unlocked the potential of microbiome in medical use cases, yielding tremendous insights on its nature, interactions, and impact within a host and in an external environment. Advanced studies on the role of microbiota and their interactions with the host have enabled the development of innovative treatment strategies and diagnostic techniques. Research is also underway to explore microbiome applications in non-medical industries, such as agriculture, waste treatment, landfills, and marine.

Enabling technologies, namely digital technologies, omics, synthetic biology, and microbial culturing technologies, enhance microbiome research and development (R&D), manufacturing, product development, and commercialization. Advancements in digital technologies, such as big data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, contribute to collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing microbiome data for various applications. Omics technologies such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics improve the characterization of microbiome data, host-microbiome interactions, microbial response to external stimuli, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing, and proteomics and metabolome profiles. Synthetic biology facilitates the design of engineered microbes for therapeutics, cell-based biosensors for diagnostics, and complex switches and synthetic gene networks for drug discovery. Similarly, technological developments in high-throughput culturing techniques enable the culturing of previously uncultivable microorganisms. These technology enablers open up new opportunities and applications for microbiome-based products in industries.

This Frost & Sullivan research service provides an overview of technologies enabling microbiome research. Technology enablers address challenges in microbiome data collection and analysis, product development, and manufacturing. Academic and research institutes, public and private organizations, and companies collaborate to develop and use integrated omics technologies, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools, microbial engineering through synthetic biology, and robust data analysis tools to manage vast amounts of microbiome data. Knights Lab, Metabiomics, and Eagle Genomics are examples of companies offering machine learning and data analysis tools to facilitate microbiome research. Pacific Biosciences, MacCoss Lab of the University of Washington, and IsoPlexis are advancing omics technologies to improve microbiome research and address its challenges.

The study highlights notable funding and investment trends facilitating microbiome research globally. The United States leads the funding landscape as many public and private institutions support microbiome research and adoption, resulting in increased industry-academia partnerships. The study also identifies growth opportunities for companies in the microbiome value chain and covers the following key areas:
• Current microbiome research scenario
• Challenges in microbiome research and promising solutions
• Enabling technologies for microbiome R&D, product development, and commercialization
• Key funding and investment deals
• Growth opportunities for stakeholders in the value chain