Prevention instead of just treating the symptoms

The intestinal flora is a term that many would prefer never to talk about. Yet it has a massive influence on physical health. The founding team of Biomes wants to change that - and at the same time quickly revolutionize the healthcare system.

Why did you found Biomes?

We founded Biomes so that everyone can finally benefit from the research that is going on in our high-tech labs. We wanted to bring something to market that would make scientific knowledge about one's own health status available and understandable to everyone. That's why we assembled an interdisciplinary team of bioinformaticians and microbiologists, and developed a technically complex but easy-to-use gut microbiome analysis. Our first product, the Intest.pro, helps people with a wide variety of ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome, obesity or immune deficiency to investigate their causes. The test also provides health-conscious people with valuable information on how they can get the best out of themselves with the help of nutrition and lifestyle.

What problem do you want to solve with your idea?

Our long-term goal is to change the healthcare system: We would like to see much more focus on prevention and not just treating symptoms when diseases are already there. Our gut flora analysis is just the beginning, because the technology and process we have developed is theoretically transferable to any DNA application. Therefore, we are already working on a gut microbiome analysis for dogs and cats as well as children. We also want to bring a skin flora analysis to the market in perspective. But even that is not the end of the story! Because bacteria live everywhere on our planet. In the future, we want to use our analyses to help reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock, for example, or to use less fertilizer in agriculture.

Where did the idea for your start-up come from?

Our founder, Paul Hammer, is a systems biologist and has always been driven by a desire to explore the world while doing something that can help a lot of people. A few years ago, at a congress, he learned about the next-generation sequencing method on which our test is based. From then on, it was clear to him that he would pursue this approach. State-of-the-art biotechnology gives us the opportunity to analyze DNA as cheaply and as well as never before, and the potential applications are seemingly unlimited. So it may sound trite that the first thing we decided to do was to analyze intestinal flora. But it can do so much more than previous analyses - namely, it can capture the totality of all bacteria and thus simplify life for many people. Until now, the influence of these bacteria on human health has been underestimated. However, research in this area is progressing more and more and we already know quite a bit about the connections between the diversity of intestinal bacteria and certain diseases.

And how exactly does your product work?

Intest.pro is a DNA-based intestinal flora test that can be performed at home. Our customers take a small stool sample, put it into a preservative solution and send the sample tube to our Biomes laboratory. There, our experts use next-generation sequencing to examine the DNA and identify over 99.9 percent of all known bacteria in the intestine. A knowledge database that combines more than 8,000 scientific studies on the microbiome then enables detailed interpretation of the bacteria findings. The results are personal microbiota profiles, on the basis of which customers receive individual recommendations for improving their quality of life. Among other things, the analysis provides information on the proportion of beneficial and harmful bacteria, inflammation indicators, vitamins and immune system, tendencies to intolerances, intestinal flora type and calorie utilization.

I now have the test result of the intestinal flora analysis, what happens next?

The test results can be viewed via a clear online dashboard and are presented in an understandable way. If required, they can be discussed in the form of a PDF with an alternative practitioner, pharmacist or treating physician. In principle, however, the recommendations for action and the individual nutrition plan of BIOMES also provide sufficiently well-founded recommendations to take health into one's own hands. An essential factor is to deepen the knowledge about the underestimated intestine and an intestine-friendly diet - here everyone can read up on their own, for example in the BIOMES blog.

Do you plan to have your gut flora test certified as a medical device?

Although our analyses can also identify pathogens and disease patterns, we have so far deliberately decided against certification as a medical device. There are several reasons for this. In the lifestyle segment, we are much better able to fulfill our actual mission - namely to provide people with tools and solutions with which they can monitor their own health in order to prevent illness in the first place. In addition, regulatory diagnostic approvals are only ever possible for a specific disease, but our DNA analyses, as a so-called "untargeted approach," do not require any prior assumptions about a specific disease or infection. Theoretically, we would have to seek a separate approval for each individual disease, which would make no economic sense.

Is your intestinal flora analysis covered by the statutory health insurance?

In our experience, German health insurance companies generally have difficulty with new technologies that do not have medical device approval. In addition, their focus is almost exclusively on the treatment of diseases and not on health or prevention. Nevertheless, we are in discussions with a major Swiss health insurer and several German private health insurers about how our analyses and solutions can help their members to live healthily and protect themselves preventively against disease. We are confident that here, too, a change in stakeholder thinking will continue to move in the direction of prevention. Independently of the healthcare industry here, we are noticing increasing major investments in health-promoting technologies from the large tech companies in the USA and Asia, e.g. in so-called wearables (Google FitBit, Apple Watch) or individual biomarkers (e.g. microbiome). We assume that these global market players will drive a transformation of today's "disease" system to a true healthcare system, quasi a digitalization of healthcare. BIOMES would like not only to accompany this system change, but also to actively shape it with its own technologies and solutions.

From the idea to the start: How have you financed yourself so far?

Financing a startup is of course always a challenge, but so far we have had a good hand in finding the right supporters. We are currently funded by several business angels and two VC investors, who are above all also strong partners and very valued advisors for us. Nevertheless, we have a capital-intensive business and will need to raise further rounds of financing. For example, we plan to do our Series A next spring. In addition to funding, it is always a challenge for us to stay focused. Due to the countless potential applications of our genomics technology platform, we also address a wide variety of problems in a wide variety of industries (e.g. diagnostics, pharma, food or agriculture). Therefore, we had to learn to say "no" to promising requests from large corporates in order not to lose focus with our limited resources.

As a biotech, you also provided some support during the Corona pandemic. What exactly did you do?

To support the state of Brandenburg in the fight against the Corona pandemic, we have been performing qPCR analysis of throat swabs to detect Corona since August 2020 and genome sequencing of positive Corona samples to detect virus mutants since February 2021. For this purpose, we have adapted our laboratory processes, which are actually geared towards intestinal flora analysis, and made high investments in the required technology. Since March of this year, we have been able to focus on our core microbiome business again.

Where do you see your start-up in five years?

Our medium-term goal is to break down prejudices against DNA analysis and to convince doctors and the general public of the important insights we can gain thanks to tests like ours. In the longer term, we want to become the top dog in genomics and thus the lifelong companion for people in dealing with their genes.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

We can only advise other founders: always be prepared to raise money even at short notice. We ourselves recently went through a difficult financial phase when we suddenly had to expand our business model to include clinical corona diagnostics in a very short time. In order to do so, we downscaled our actual core business, microbiome analysis. Due to the high costs and the lack of planned sales, we had to raise fresh capital within three months. As a founder of a start-up, you have to keep a cool head even in such a tense situation and be ready to look for and find new solutions spontaneously.

What tips would you give to other founders?

It is advisable to conduct a pitch, for example with potential investors, as a dialog and also to ask the investors important questions, for example, how they understand their role "beyond money" in an investment in your startup. Once you have found the right investors, they will be much more than pure financiers, for example they will provide you with their network and you can rely on them, even in difficult situations.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Personal details: Paul Hammer is the founder and CEO of the biotechnology company Biomes. He received his PhD in systems biology and bioinformatics from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Potsdam in 2012. His great passion is the study of genomic and microbial mechanisms and their impact on life. In 2017, Paul Hammer founded Biomes NGS GmbH with six other scientists*. The biotechnology company analyzes the DNA of microbes living in and on the human body on the basis of the so-called Next Generation Sequencing method.