We have same poop, but we haven't met before.
Interesting.
What are you doing Jim?
I'm getting my microbiome sequenced.
What's your microbiome?
It's the microbes that live all over you and inside you,
the bacteria, viruses, fungi,
I'm going to figure out what they all are in me.
I call them crobes.
Just call it the microbiome.
Where are you going?
To get the sample.
A few years ago we discovered that these crobes
are basically an organ system.
Much of the DNA in our bodies is microbial and
most of the cells we carry around are microbes.
Even though they're so small that they only make up
about three pounds of our body weight they're all over
our skin, in our guts, in our mouths, and they're integral
to immunity, digestion, cognition, everything from
body weight to anxiety to acne—
almost everything our bodies do.
Since discovering the microbiome
research and investment have exploded.
Many believe that understanding and potentially
manipulating our microbial populations will be a
cornerstone of medical science in the not distant future.
Some health technology companies are banking on this.
Like uBiome.
They've developed a method where people can get
a sense of their own unique bacterial populations.
For $400 uBiome will give you an idea of what bacteria
are living in your gut, mouth, nose, groin and skin.
Hi, I'm Jim. I brought my uBiome kit.
I didn't trust the federal postal service.
You never can trust those guys.
I wanted to get it sequenced right away.
We'll process it right away in our DNA sequencing lab.
How long will that take?
It takes between two to four weeks to process.
Can I sit on the couch?
Every sample that comes in goes through three steps.
Extraction, amplification and sequencing.
Entering lab area, no food or drinks.
This is our pre-amplification laboratory.
Here's the gut tube.
What Kira would do is scan your tube, stick it on
that robot, put that with the other samples and then
the robot will mechanically process to extract the DNA.
By comparing your microbes to other people's uBiome
is able to make certain educated guesses about
your health and some people use that information
to try and change their microbes.
It's been two to four weeks since I got here,
you processed my sample and I'm nervous
to find out what we can tell from my microbiome.
Your firmicutes to bacteroidetes ratio is 3.5.
When I was envisioning you I thought you were
a bit on the chubbier side.
But I'm not.
That was one of the observations.
One of the other observations is you have one particular
genus increased, and it has been linked to depression.
Which one is that?
Alistipes. It's the most increased bacterium in your gut.
The most increased relative to the average?
Relative to the average uBiome.
Maybe you have a really San Francisco population and
you just need to get more people from New York.
At Columbia University, Ian Lipkin thinks it's too early
for most people to be sequencing their microbiome.
I brought a stool sample
but he said he wanted nothing to do with it.
Are you familiar with uBiome, this company
in San Francisco that offers microbiome sequencing.
Do you think that right now there's any utility
to people having their microbiome sequenced?
I don't think we know enough yet about the microbiome
to be able to advise people as to how they should modify
their diets or lifestyles based on
the information you will get from a kit of this sort.
Having said that, the more information that we
accumulate about how certain types of bacterial
populations are associated with health and disease,
the more likely we're going to get there.
The Human Microbiome Project was
based on 242 people.
We're preparing our first big scientific publication from
uBiome where we're we analyze 10,000 individuals.
Are you going to share that data with everyone?
We're evaluating what the right format will be.
How far down the line, how far out are we from basic
microbiome screening being a part of primary care?
It's a matter of time really before the sequencing
technology is sufficiently robust and efficient that you
can get this actionable information in a matter of hours
I'm fairly secure in thinking about a ten-year timeframe.
I am not depressed.
Good.
We're not experts in naming.
I am.
I'm really good at branding and naming,
like consider a new bacteria that you want to
get on Bieber, Kardashians, I can have it in Milan.
People talking about it on Instagram, snapping it.
You let me know.