I-Corps: Developing Oral Microbiome Transplantation to Transform Oral Health Therapies

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发口腔微生物组移植技术以改善口腔健康。这项技术被开发为一种新工具，可以用健康捐赠者的微生物取代口腔中与疾病相关的微生物。这一解决方案将改善龋齿和牙周病的发病率——这是当今美国最常见的两种慢性疾病。实施为牙医提供了新的预防和治疗疗法，可用于诊所和人们在家中使用。作为这项研究的一部分开发的技术也可以用于其他领域，主要用于开发和测试骨骼和关节置换、管道和水安全方面的预防性技术。这个I-Corps项目是基于口腔微生物组移植技术的发展。这项技术将微生物从极度健康的捐赠者的口腔移植到接受者的口腔中，以预防疾病并改善口腔健康。虽然这种解决方案尚未在人体中进行试验，但研究人员正在开发这种技术，以预防龋齿和牙周病。目前，这项技术包括在实验室的3D打印室中收集和培养供体牙菌斑，这使得科学家可以选择他们将用于移植的微生物，并测试该过程的有效性，然后再将它们放置在需要它们的人身上。该项目将使用客户发现来开发一个转化计划，以指导如何设计和构建该技术以适应客户的需求。通过客户访谈，该团队将确定未来牙医和潜在患者如何使用这项技术。这一客户发现过程将简化开发过程，并为该技术的商业化提供决定性的途径，以改善口腔健康。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 the development of an oral microbiome transplant technology to improve oral health. This technology is being developed as a new tool that replaces disease-associated microbes in the mouth with those from a healthy donor. This solution will improve dental caries and periodontal disease incidence – two of the most common chronic diseases in the United States today. The implementation provides new preventative and treatment therapies for dentists to be used in clinics and for people to use at home. The technology developed as part this research can also be utilized in other sectors, largely to develop and test preventative technologies in bone and joint replacement, plumbing, and water safety. This I-Corps project is based on the development of oral microbiome transplant technology. This technology transplants microorganisms from the mouth of an ultra-healthy donor to the mouth of a recipient to prevent disease and improve oral health. While this solution has not yet been trialed in humans, research is underway to develop this technology for the prevention of caries and periodontal disease. Currently, the technology involves collecting and growing donor dental plaque in a 3D printed chamber in the laboratory, which allows scientists to select which microorganisms they will use for transplantation and test how effective the process may be, before placing them in someone who needs them. This project will use customer discovery to develop a translational plan to guide how to design and build this technology to fit the customers’ needs. Using customer interviews, this team will identify how this technology can be used both by dentists and potential patients in the future. This customer discovery process will streamline the development and provide avenues to decisively move forward with the commercialization of this technology to improve oral health.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.