How One Biotech Startup Is Mining Elite Athletes’ Gut Bacteria To Create Next-Gen Probiotics

Want to know some crazy secrets? Superhuman athletes who run hundreds of miles or train like machines might have something special in their guts. Actual germs to help them power through when the rest of us lie face down on the couch. This is the amazing part. A bunch of smart people figured out how to bottle that special sauce. They discovered these tiny, powerful microbes that live in the digestive systems of ultramarathoners and turned them into a simple probiotic pill. One of these bacteria is particularly good. You literally eat up the substances that burn your muscles during exercise.

The best part? You don’t have to run 100 miles or train like an Olympic athlete to reap its benefits. People who take these probiotics report that they no longer need that extra afternoon nap, and some even eliminate their mid-day coffee time. Additionally, they have another version that helps with sleep. Because these elite athletes are good at it too.

input fit biomicsled by a former college basketball player turned Harvard scientist. Dr. Jonathan Shaimanis upending the traditional medical research model by focusing on health rather than disease. The company has raised $6 million to date to bring clinically validated probiotic innovations to the world.

“With traditional biotechnology, it actually takes 10 years and billions of dollars to develop a drug with a success rate of less than 10%,” said Shaiman, who completed his postdoctoral research in George Church’s lab at Harvard University. “It takes a lot of money,” he explains. “Think about where we are in terms of society. We are probably sicker than ever before. 60% of adults in the United States have at least one chronic disease. and costs governments up to $4 trillion annually in preventable health care costs.”

From basketball courts to biotechnology laboratories

Shaiman’s path to biotech entrepreneurship was not traditional. “In another life, I played basketball in college and wanted to be a pro ball player, but I couldn’t make it to the NBA, so I got a PhD in biomedical science as a backup,” he said. said with humor. This unique background, combining sports experience and scientific expertise, will prove invaluable in shaping FitBiomics’ innovative approach.

Rather than studying diseases, FitBiomics investigates what makes the world’s top athletes so great. Their groundbreaking research, published in Nature Medicine, led to the discovery of Veillonella, a beneficial bacterium that metabolizes lactic acid to provide energy to muscle mitochondria. “When we looked at ultramarathon runners running 160 miles at a time, we discovered a microorganism called Veillonella that naturally feeds on lactic acid to fight fatigue and increase endurance,” explains Shaiman.

Wellness revolution: Consumers don’t want to be patients – they want to remain consumers

The wellness economy is projected to reach $7 trillion by the end of the decade, reflecting growing consumer interest in preventive health solutions. In this sector, the global probiotics market alone is expected to reach $100 billion. FitBiomics has positioned itself at the intersection of these trends and is reporting impressive early results with customer retention rates of over 80% month over month.

“Consumers don’t want to be patients; they want to remain consumers,” Shaiman emphasized, highlighting the important changes in how people approach their health. “Everyone is now increasingly concerned about healthspan. How can we optimize our biology without resorting to pharmaceutical intervention?”

This shift in consumer behavior is especially noticeable in the context of recent health trends. “I think GLP-1 changed everything in some ways,” Shaiman said, referring to a popular class of weight-loss drugs. “People are using it almost now, not only to treat obesity, but also as an aesthetic thing like biohacking. And the crazy thing about it is that people are using it on the moon because of it. You’re spending thousands of dollars.”

From lab to market: A new agile, cost-effective approach to product development

The company has already commercialized two products. V·Nell, the company’s main productbehelps metabolize lactic acid and reduces fatigue. Nera is targeting sleep health, a key market given that 100 million Americans suffer from insomnia.

“Consumers start to notice a difference within 10 to 14 days of daily consumption,” Shaiman said. “They experience less daily fatigue that interferes with their daily lives, have more energy, and some even track their cardiovascular effects with wearable devices. ‘I no longer have to take a nap on the way to work’ or I no longer have to drink coffee during the day.’

The science behind success

FitBiomics’ approach represents a major departure from traditional drug development. “In terms of human performance, we have deciphered 0.01% of the population. This is a very unique biological phenotype, and we can now identify the drivers of optimal physiology.” explains Shaiman.

The company’s focus on the microbiome of elite athletes has yielded surprising insights. “Think about organ transplants from healthy donors, blood transplants, and stem cell transplants to help the recipient,” says Shaiman. “This could be a similar concept to the microbiome. We’re sort of isolating these very rare, healthy microorganisms and making them available as probiotics.”

Competitive environment and FitBiomics characteristics

In the crowded field of microbiome and probiotic companies, FitBiomics stands out through its unique approach and intellectual property. Some notable companies working in the microbiome, probiotics, and gut health space include: Ceres Therapeutics, calliope, pendulum, seed, solera bio, Vyomeand zoe. AG1the company promotes the gut health benefits of its products, so basic nutritional supplements are also part of this list. moreover, Thorn Health Tech is a personalized health and wellness company that was acquired by LCAT for $680 million.

When it comes to health tech companies that create, translate, and sell their own IP, the list is much shorter. Debut profile and alcarea is considered a synbiocompany that uses biotechnology for the benefit of consumer health. Specifically for the microbiome space, VCs have invested $3 billion in the microbiome space over the past decade. To take a modern example, Nestlé Health Sciences acquired Seres Therapeutics’ Vowst™, a microbiome treatment for C. diff, a bacteria that causes diarrhea and colitis. The treatment costs thousands of dollars per dose and the condition affects half a million people. “In comparison, FitBiomics was able to develop our products, Nella and V·Nella, for just a few million dollars instead of billions of dollars, and consumers can afford these other very expensive treatments. We are making them available to not just 500,000 people, but millions of people, by solving a variety of gut-based problems such as insomnia, digestion, and menopause. ” concluded the founder.

Gut Microbiome Data – NVIDIA for Wellness?

Looking to the future, Shaiman sees significant growth potential. “Our goal is to become the NVIDIA of wellness, creating biological software that can be integrated into every corner of the world’s health and wellness,” he says.

The company is particularly focused on addressing modern health challenges. “Life itself is like an ultramarathon,” Shaiman reflects. “Consider that fatigue is prevalent in society due to the effects of the pandemic. Society has also become addicted to energy such as coffee, caffeine, energy drinks, etc. Consumers and people are looking for these kinds of solutions. It’s obvious.

Perhaps most innovative is FitBiomics’ approach to product development. “As an entrepreneur, I have been heavily influenced by the Lean Startup model,” explains Shaiman. “I think there is a tendency in science and technology to over-engineer and try to optimize things that don’t exist yet. We strongly believe that the market wants to iterate and optimize this approach, given that over $3 billion has already been invested in this area in the last decade alone. poses a fundamental challenge to the field.

This approach has allowed the company to achieve results with far less capital than required for traditional biotechnology. “We have literally translated biological data into our own probiotics. No one else in the world has them,” said Shaiman. “This is like pharmaceutical-grade intellectual property that we have found a way to bring to market with orders of magnitude less capital and in a fraction of the time.”

As the prevalence of chronic diseases continues to rise and healthcare costs soar, the FitBiomics approach offers a promising alternative to traditional pharmaceutical solutions. “The microbiome is the ultimate biohack,” Scheiman concludes. “We are literally translating the microbiome of elite athletes into consumer health products. And as wild as that may sound, what’s even crazier is that it works. ”

In a world increasingly focused on preventive health and wellness, FitBiomics’ innovative approach to probiotic development could represent the future of consumer health products. By bridging the gap between elite athletic performance and everyday health, they are creating accessible solutions to common health challenges, and in the process changing the way we think about probiotics. It could start a revolution.