We are so excited to welcome Microbiome Labs to Rupa Health! We had a great conversation with Kiran Krishnan, co-founder and General Manager of Microbiome Labs, to learn more about the company and the tests they offer.
Introducing Microbiome Labs!
Hi, Kiran! It is great to chat with you today. What led you to start Microbiome Labs?
I founded Microbiome Labs in 2012 alongside Dr. Tom Bayne, DC. When we met, I had a research company focusing on effective clinical trials for supplement companies. Tom was running a functional medicine practice in the suburbs of Chicago, seeing a lot of patients with digestive problems. He interested me because he understood that the gut is the origin of many of the chronic illnesses from which people are suffering.
Through his practice, Tom found that the vast majority of probiotic products on the market did not work. So we worked together to formulate Megaspore, a 5-strain probiotic cocktail that we thought would do some amazing things in the gut. We tried taking it to some larger companies in the space, but they didn’t want it at the time. So we decided to do it ourselves. We created our pilot batch, and Tom gave it to some of his patients. We heard positive results from all of the patients trying this probiotic. As we slowly ramped up interest in our product, we continued to hear positive feedback from doctors across the country.
We were seeing these amazing clinical effects, but we needed to understand how that was happening. So we put the majority of our revenue back into research. We have been banking on science since day 1; there is no one in this space doing clinical trials like us.
Through this research, we have created new tools that you can use to take your health and wellness into your own hands, tools to empower yourself to fix your problems at the core. We’re seeing more and more that conventional medicine is not dealing with the core issues. It becomes incumbent on us in the integrative or functional medicine space to address the core issue. We think an effective probiotic and other products that come around that, like the BiomeFX, will be a resounding answer to that problem.
Today, our CLIA-certified, GCP-compliant laboratory provides the microbiome field with access to standardized and validated metagenomics solutions so that industry, academia, and clinicians can unlock the microbiome with confidence!
You can view Kiran and Tom talk more about Microbiome Labs’ history here.
What an incredible story! I love that both you and Tom have a long history in the functional medicine space. What is your favorite part about being in this industry?
Our favorite part of being in this industry is the ability to bring hope back to people. Hundreds of thousands of people with chronic illnesses have been told that there is no resolution, that there will be no end to their suffering. We can, and do, give those people hope. We give them a path to wellness. We, as an industry, are a beacon of light in the thick fog of their misery.
We believe, and there is now evidence, that functional medicine provides far better outcomes for people over the conventional, allopathic approach. We envision that, in the near future, functional medicine will no longer be "alternative" but, instead, will be the mainstream of how we care for people’s health. We truly believe that functional medicine can solve the global health crisis.
That is amazing. We agree! Here at Rupa, we are on a mission to bring root cause medicine to everyone on the planet.
Let’s talk more about your lab. What kinds of tests do you offer?
We currently offer one test - the Biome FX stool test. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, but it does help practitioners give insight into markers such as parasites, Candida overgrowth, bacterial stability, bacterial abundance, bacterial richness, dysbiosis ratios, C. diff levels, viruses, saccharolytic fermentation, proteolytic fermentation, and short-chain fatty acid production.
I hear you are working on a new test right now. Is that correct?
Yes, we are working on the release of our new BiomeFX vaginal kits.
Great! We cannot wait to see that test launched and added to our Rupa Health platform.
What kinds of practitioners can order tests from you?
All healthcare practitioners can order from Microbiome Labs - MDs, DOs, acupuncturists, pharmacists, nutritionists, health coaches, physical therapists, the list goes on.
To close out, is there anything else you would like to share about Microbiome Labs?
Microbiome Labs is the only company in our industry that is wholly focused on the microbiome. Other companies may have some gut health and microbiome-related products, but Microbiome Labs is the only company in our industry that has over 240 brilliant professionals that eat, sleep, and breathe microbiome science and therapeutics. We are the most prolific publisher of research on microbiome-related science, and we have championed numerous unparalleled innovations in this space. We are a functional medicine company propelled by an amazing biotech and research engine.
Fantastic! I cannot think of a better way to end than that. We appreciate you taking the time to speak with us and we look forward to growing our partnership with Microbiome Labs.
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