Molecules, Microbes And Multiomics

In this episode, Ajin Abraham (Strategic Marketing Manager, Genomics) and Sanna Abbasi, Ph.D. (Scientific Writer/Content Specialist) interview a group of leaders in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PGC-PTSD). The purpose of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium is to unite investigators around the world to conduct meta- and mega-analyses of genome-wide data for psychiatric disorders. We talk about the mission of the PGC-PTSD workgroup, how genomics is contributing to discoveries and advancing the field, the impact of advocacy on policy, and the benefits of using saliva for investigation.  

In this podcast, we interview Dr. Jonas Schluter, Assistant Professor from the Department of Microbiology at the Grossman School of Medicine at NYU Langone Health and a winner of the DNA Genotek and Diversigen 2021 Expand into Multi-omics grant, discuss his research.

We invited Alexander Bisignano, CEO of Phosphorus, to tell us more about his company’s application of genetic testing and to share what is in store for them in the future. 

Can the oral microbiome help law enforcement link suspects to crime scenes or evidence? In this episode of Molecules, Microbes and Multiomics Heloise Breton PhD, a product manager at DNA Genotek with a background in forensic science, and Megan Anderson, a recent graduate from Rock Canyon High School, chatted with us about Megan’s project on the oral microbiome in collaboration with the team of scientists at Diversigen.

We recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Severien Van Keer, a post-doc researcher at the VAXINFECTIO research group, at the University of Antwerp. Her research primarily focuses on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) detection in first-void urine, and the potential of urine as a sample type for cervical cancer screening. Her research also includes Novosanis' Colli-Pee®, a first-void urine collection device.

One new start-up microbiology company, Brick Built, is focused on the potential of the human oral microbiome. Our two microbiome product managers at DNA Genotek, Dr. Heloise Breton, and Laura Cunningham, had the pleasure of speaking with Brick Built Therapeutics co-founder Dr. Brian Klein about the role and future potentials of the oral microbiome in our health and biotech industry.

Shoreline Biome is a microbiome-focused company that provides simple solutions for microbiome next-generation sequencing. They develop tools and reagents to support end-to-end microbiome analysis. We talk about the amazing work of the team at Shoreline Biome and had the pleasure to interview their Director of R&D, Dawn Gratalo. 

In this interview with Dr. Dan Knights, Senior Scientific Advisor of Diversigen, learn about the future of data generation from microbiome samples. Dr. Knights discusses how he started in microbiome and bioinformatics research, ways to increase the power of microbiome studies, and different signals within the microbiome.

In this podcast, we explore how DNA Genotek and Quadrant Biosciences have been working together to support advancements in various diseases via RNA research and collection. Together, they've created RNA tests for early detection of autism spectrum disorder, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and COVID-19.

We interview a team from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who are exploring the impact of probiotics in COVID-19 transmission with a new clinical trial: Probiotics To Eliminate COVID-19 Transmission in Exposed Household Contacts (PROTECT-EHC).

The interest in human microbiome has widened from the gut to other parts of the human body, like skin. One company saw an opportunity to combine the science of the human skin microbiome, makeup and skincare. In this episode of Molecules, Microbes, and Multiomics, we interview the co-founders of Pure Culture Beauty Joy Chen, former CEO of Yes To and H2O+ Beauty, and Victor Casale, former chief chemist of MAC Cosmetics and co-founder of Cover FX.

When the pandemic hit, the demand for COVID-19 testing drastically increased, resulting in shortages of COVID-19 sampling and laboratory supplies and impacting the number of tests that could be performed. When we confirmed that our collection devices could stabilize, and inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we knew we could help. In this podcast we discuss the challenges and solutions for global shortages of materials for COVID-19 testing featuring DNA Genotek's COVID-19 experts.

We recently had the opportunity to interview Professor Patrick Pauwels, head of the laboratory of molecular pathology and co-director of CORE, a joint oncology research platform with the University of Antwerp. This podcast discusses the potential of liquid biopsies, such as urine in the field of cancer research especially when tissue is an issue. It also highlights URODETECT, a collaborative project between CORE and Novosanis, which focuses on investigating urinary biomarkers for prostate and breast cancer using the Colli-Pee® device.

The question of “What is Metabolomics” has been buzzing around the scientific community. With the advances of new technology, a gateway to studying metabolomics has been opened. Over recent years, microbiome researchers have begun to incorporate  metabolomics, the “missing piece of the puzzle”, as part of their multiomics studies  To understand that missing piece more clearly and what it could mean for the future of multiomics, we feature two experts from DNA Genotek,  Dr. Heloise Breton, Product Manager for Microbiome products, and Dr. Olle de Bruin, R&D Scientist - microbiome/metabolomics.

Nom Nom is not your average pet food company.  In addition to delivering fresh, healthy meals for cats and dogs created by a team of veterinary nutritionists, they use gut microbiome samples submitted by their customers to study the link between nutrition and pet health.  Nom Nom partners with Diversigen to analyze these samples and provide the accurate sequencing and bioinformatics analysis the Nom Nom scientists require to learn about the impact of nutrition on pet health. We speak with Dr. Ryan Honaker, the director of Microbiology at Nom Nom, in the latest episode of our Molecules, Microbes, and Multiomics Podcast.

We recently had the opportunity to interview Rebecca Millecamps, a Marketing Manager at Fujirebio, a global leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics (IVD). In 2019, Novosanis and Fujirebio, signed a worldwide, non-exclusive agreement for the distribution of  Colli-Pee®, Novosanis’ urine collection device for use with Fujirebio’s INNO-LiPA HPV genotyping Extra II assay. This partnership enables detection and full genotyping of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in first-void urine (first 20 mL of urine) collected with Colli-Pee®. In this podcast, Rebecca discusses how urine testing will impact HPV testing, what the benefits are of performing HPV genotyping in urine samples and the future for urine testing for HPV compared to cervical samples. 

DNA Genotek has expertise with many different non-invasive sample types including saliva for genomic and feces for microbiome analysis. With any sample type, quality is paramount to generate the best sequencing results and subsequently to produce the most accurate data. In this podcast, Mike Tayeb and Brice LeFrancois, two experts from our research and development team highlight the best practices they use in the lab with saliva and fecal samples to get optimal sequencing results.

This episode of Molecules, microbes and multiomics features an interview with Pamela Feliciano, Ph.D. who is the Scientific Director for SPARK (Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research through Knowledge)  Launched in 2016, SPARK is designed to speed up research and advance our understanding of autism. SPARK, the largest study of autism ever, aims to make important progress possible. Learn about their project and why they use DNA saliva collection as their method of choice. 

As the microbiome industry grows and evolves, so has our team of microbiome experts. In 2019, DNA Genotek’s parent company, OraSure, acquired both CoreBiome and Diversigen. Through these acquisitions, we gained Diversigen's industry recognized CLIA/CAP state-of-the-art techniques with expert consultative microbiome services, and the strength of CoreBiome's innovative scalable sequencing technology.  In this podcast, Lisa Gamwell, Services Product Manager at DNA Genotek speaks with Dan Knights, CEO of CoreBiome and Joy Nassif, Chief Operating Officer at Diversigen, to discuss their companies and how these teams will to work together to help advance the microbiome industry as a whole. 

DNA Genotek speaks with researchers involved in the recently launched Dog Aging Project. The goal of the Dog Aging Project is to understand how genes, lifestyle, and environment influence aging and to use that information to help pets and people increase healthspan, the period of life spent free from disease. In this podcast, we speak with Dr. Daniel Promislow from the Dog Aging Project, Dr. Elinor Karlsson from the Darwin's Ark Project and Dr. Janet Patterson-Kane from the Golden Retriever's Lifetime study.