Academia, not industry, is pushing the microbiome forward

The promise of treating disease by tinkering with the trillions of microbes in the human gut has attracted millions in private investment, but experts say the nascent microbiomic industry is still following academia’s lead.

As STAT’s Kate Sheridan reports, when it comes to the microbiome, academic scientists outnumber their industry peers in pages of key papers and at the podia of major conference. That’s a contrast to many other fields of biomedical research, where academia’s groundwork soon gives way to biopharma’s practical applications.

“I think [academic science] always plays a foundational role, but I would say the speed with which the field is advancing is unusual,” said Dr. Stan Hazen, director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Microbiome and Human Health. “That is what I think is quite surprising.”

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