New Platform Quickly Analyzes Bacterial Strains in the Microbiome

The DMC’s Lawrence David, along with now former David lab members Max Villa and Rachael Bloom, developed an experimental platform called MicDrop to culture and assay gut microbial function for hundreds of different microbes at once. This allows them to analyze dozens of the bacterial species in an individual’s microbiome in a single day. “We know that the gut microbiome is hugely important in human health,” Bloom said. “Having a way to measure how someone’s microbiome responds to a treatment – whether a drug, probiotic or prebiotic – is really important.” Their work was published in mSystems on June 30. Read more here.