I-Corps: Rapid home microbiome diagnostic tests

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是监测建筑环境（家庭/工作/医疗保健提供者）中的微生物，以及作为整体健康和保健的一部分的我们自己（人类微生物组）。虽然基于培养的方法是目前鉴定微生物的金标准，但培养特定生物的时间和难度阻碍了它们在大规模环境监测中的应用。直接从样本中对DNA进行测序的新方法，被称为宏基因组下一代测序（mNGS），提供了一条前进的道路。mNGS是无偏倚的，提供了1)与培养相比在24小时内获得结果的潜力，2)避免挑剔的生物问题，3)避免培养生长偏差，4)在同一试验中检测病毒，真菌和寄生虫生物，5)检测耐药基因的存在。mNGS技术和数据分析的进步降低了mNGS的成本，因此保证了其在基于消费者的产品中的发展。通过为客户提供一种基于证据的方法来测量和监测他们的家庭环境，mNGS可以通过监测潜在的环境危害，展示清洁剂和空气净化系统的效果，改善个人的健康状况，特别是那些免疫功能低下的人（如老年人、糖尿病患者、自身免疫性疾病和癌症患者）或患有哮喘和过敏的人，使消费者受益。I-Corps项目将开展客户发现活动，探索将可扩展的新型大数据方法商业化的可能性，该方法基于微生物群落之间的遗传相似性和差异性来计算宏基因组之间的距离。这些分析提供了一种聚类相似宏基因组的方法，或者相反，区分微生物群落以确定生态（或临床）条件的影响。该团队将探索开发一种面向消费者的产品来分析家庭微生物组的方法的实用性。作为I-Corps项目的一部分，他们将从不同的角度进行100次客户访谈，以深入了解潜在产品和未满足的需求。一个人的个人环境代表了大量的表面和环境因素，这些因素因地区、气候和生活方式而异，可能对人类健康有重要影响。潜在的产品探索家庭环境和有害微生物之间的联系，以促进健康、安全和限制传染病传播。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in monitoring microbes in the built environment (home/work/healthcare providers), and on ourselves (the human microbiome) as a part of holistic health and wellness. While culture-based methods are the current gold-standard for identifying microbes, the time and difficulty in culturing particular organisms prevent their application in broad-scale environmental monitoring. New approaches to sequence DNA directly from a sample, referred to as metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), offer a path forward. mNGS is unbiased and offers the potential to 1) achieve results in 24 hours compared to days for culture, 2) avoid the issue of fastidious organisms, 3) avoid culture growth bias, 4) detect viral, fungal, and parasitic organisms in the same assay, and 5) detect the presence of drug resistance genes. Advances in mNGS technology and data analysis have reduced the cost mNGS, and therefore warrant its development in consumer-based products. By providing customers with an evidence-based approach to measuring and monitoring their home environment, mNGS could benefit consumers by monitoring potential environmental hazards, demonstrating the effect of cleaners and air purification systems, and improving health in individuals, especially those that are immunocompromised (e.g., elderly, diabetic, autoimmune diseases, and cancer patients) or suffering from asthma and allergies.This I-Corps project will conduct customer discovery activities to explore the possibility of commercializing a scalable and novel big data approach to compute the distance between metagenomes based on the genetic similarities and differences between microbial communities. These analyses provide a way to cluster similar metagenomes, or in contrast, distinguish between microbial communities to determine the impact of ecological (or clinical) conditions. The team will explore the utility of their approach for developing a consumer-facing product to analyze the home microbiome. As part of the I-Corps program, they will conduct 100 customer interviews from diverse perspectives to hone in on a potential product and unmet need. An individual’s personal environment represents a vast array of surfaces and environmental factors that vary by region, climate, and lifestyle and may have an important on human health. Potential products explore the connection between the home environment and hazardous microbes, for health, safety, and limiting infectious disease transmission.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.