“The impoverished laboratory environment in which mice and rats are maintained has been very good at increasing experimental replicability,” Steven Austad told the audience at the 12th Aging Research & Drug Discovery Meeting (ARDD) in Copenhagen last week. “But at the cost of sacrificing translational relevance.”

Is fecal microbiota transplant effective? Is it really safe? And is it really all the same? Scientists at the University of Chicago have investigated the regional differences in gut environments to question these interventions.

Is fecal microbiota transplant effective? Is it really safe? And is it really all the same? Scientists at the University of Chicago have investigated the regional differences in gut environments to question these interventions to analyze the microbiome differences and their effects after transplantation form different intestine areas. The results show how host-microbe mismatches after these interventions could affect gut health.

Is fecal microbiota transplant effective? Is it really safe? And is it really all the same? Scientists at the University of Chicago have investigated the regional differences in gut environments to question these interventions to analyze the microbiome differences and their effects after transplantation form different intestine areas. The results show how host-microbe mismatches after these interventions could affect gut health.

Researchers have identified KpsM as a virulence factor in Escherichia coli that was responsible for liver damage in alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH). A small-molecule inhibitor of KpsM reduced liver damage in animal models of AH.

Microbiome specialist Enterobiotix Ltd. has reported positive results for the phase Ib trial of its EBX-102 fecal microbiota therapy in patients with stable liver cirrhosis. The placebo-controlled study involved first-in-human dosing with the company’s encapsulated oral formulation of microbiota derived from the stools of healthy donors. After initial dosing, patients were followed up for 12 weeks to assess changes in a range of clinical and blood biomarkers.

The gastrointestinal tract could be key to developing new drugs to combat resistant bacteria. Computational analysis of the human microbiome has revealed a new class of peptides with antimicrobial potential that, once synthesized, inhibited the growth of several microorganisms in vitro and in vivo.

The first patenting to emerge in the name of Copenhagen, Denmark-based 1Health Gut In Balance ApS (dba Gut In Balance) describes development of an apparatus and system that enables hospitals to produce fecal microbiota transplantation capsules on site, and much more efficiently and cheaply.