Seems there is a huge opportunity for startups to understand and fix our guts. A Theranos of gut testing, where you can find out if you have biomarkers that need adjusted from your stool sample.
andy99 · 9h ago
Didn't YC have this, and it turned out to literally be the Theranos of gut testing. MyBiome or something? Will look.
Found: (the company is uBiome)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBiome
In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two of the cofounders (Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte) with defrauding investors.[4][5] The couple were also charged with federal crimes including conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.[6] Since 2021, the FBI has considered the founders to be fugitives.
lesuorac · 6h ago
> According to company insiders, the company often repeatedly billed patients without their consent and pressured doctors to approve tests.
Is it really impossible to do all these stuff ethically?
Not a doctor but it really seems possible to just take stuff from people and throw it under a really good microscope and have a computer analyze it. You'd need some large capital costs for the microscopes but the consumable portion should be pretty limited to glass slides (plastic?).
One of these days I guess I need to spend time on gov auctions or something to find a suitable microscope ...
bsder · 8h ago
The problem with self-medication is that it doesn't get coverage when it doesn't work. And it rarely gets coverage when it makes things worse.
Faecal transplants have been tried. And we know that it works sometimes. The problem is that it also sometimes does great harm.
There is currently no way to separate and categorize the good flora that helps from the bad flora that can harm.
This is, however, an active area of research. Sure, it could be going faster.
But, of course, the US is busy wiping out the NIH, the very people who fund this kind of research ...
twojacobtwo · 7h ago
Do you know any specific instances of the times it has done great harm? Asking out of genuine curiosity.
bsder · 6h ago
"Drug-Resistant E. coli Bacteremia Transmitted by Fecal Microbiota Transplant"
This shits important. This and the vagus nerve have unaccounted control on both behavior and health outcomes that probable become more obvious in elders.
Found: (the company is uBiome)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBiome In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two of the cofounders (Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte) with defrauding investors.[4][5] The couple were also charged with federal crimes including conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.[6] Since 2021, the FBI has considered the founders to be fugitives.
Is it really impossible to do all these stuff ethically?
Not a doctor but it really seems possible to just take stuff from people and throw it under a really good microscope and have a computer analyze it. You'd need some large capital costs for the microscopes but the consumable portion should be pretty limited to glass slides (plastic?).
One of these days I guess I need to spend time on gov auctions or something to find a suitable microscope ...
Faecal transplants have been tried. And we know that it works sometimes. The problem is that it also sometimes does great harm.
There is currently no way to separate and categorize the good flora that helps from the bad flora that can harm.
This is, however, an active area of research. Sure, it could be going faster.
But, of course, the US is busy wiping out the NIH, the very people who fund this kind of research ...
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1910437