Microbiome-based stratification of immune-oncology cancer patients for optimal treatment.

Bio-Me launched its breakthrough Precision Microbiome Profiling (PMP(TM)) technology last year and will now further develop it into a series of tools that can assist oncologists to significantly improve the proportion of responders to promising new cancer treatments, called immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). PMP(TM) can rapidly and accurately profile gut bacteria known to interfere with the action of cancer drugs. Bio-Me will join forces with leading medical specialists and researchers to tackle cancer treatment response rate problems by developing diagnostic tests set to drastically improve patient outcomes. These tests could become available for academic researchers and oncology companies as early as 2022, and more widely available for clinical settings as early as 2024.

Bio-Me will deliver the first fecal-microbiome-based effective precision medicine approach to immune checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy with the potential of lifting patient response rates from 30% to 80%+, dramatically improving patient outcomes. Bio-Me has developed a gut microbiome analysis platform in collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific (TFS) called Precision Microbiome Profiling (PMP™). PMP™ is based on a targeted approach to microbiome analysis using qPCR/TaqMan assays in an OpenArray format. It enables the analysis of close to 200 samples in about 2 hours. This technology allows Bio-Me to deliver a microbiome-based test that is very well positioned to meetings requirements for clinical diagnostic applications. In this project, Bio-Me will further the development of PMP into a stratification tool that can assist medical doctors in determining optimal IO treatments. This will be done by developing specific assays for selected target bacteria known to interfere with IO medications. In order to accomplish this, Bio-Me will collaborate with leading doctors and scientists in Norway and abroad.