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dowithnutritionaladvice.Instead,hesays,thefirminvested which bacteria promote tremors and motor problems in mice that
becauseViomehiredateamofscientistsfromtheU.S.Department correlate with Parkinson’s symptoms in humans.
ofEnergy’sLosAlamosNationalLaboratory.Inaddition,Viomehad In 2016, David Donabedian, a chemistry Ph.D. who was then
madeadealwiththelabtolicenseavaluabletechplatformthathasa a partner at Longwood Fund, a Boston venture capital firm,
uniqueabilitytosequencethebiochemicalactivityinmicroorganisms. volunteered to raise the money and research power to move
SoevenifJainissellingsnakeoil,Viomemighthavesignificant Mazmanian’s biotech venture forward. The company, Waltham,
value.Indeed,BritishpharmagiantGlaxoSmithKlinestruckaroyalty Massachusetts–based Axial Biotherapeutics, has $55 million in
dealwithViomeinNovember2019touseitstechtohelpdevelop backing and 30 employees. Under Donabedian as CEO, Axial is
microbiome-derived vaccines. Jain’s investors could make out in the early stages of developing synthetic drugs made of small
handsomely. molecules it hopes will absorb the particular gut-bacteria
byproducts (called “metabolites”) that appear to exacerbate
TCALTECHINPASADENA,CALIFORNIA, autism symptoms. It’s also working on a drug to treat the digestive
microbiologistSarkisMazmanian,47,isconsideredoneof problems suffered by many people with Parkinson’s.

theforemostgurusofmicrobiomeresearch.In2012the In the U.S., more than a million people suffer from autism,
AMacArthurFoundationgavehima$500,000 and there are no drugs to treat it; an additional million have
“genius”grantforhisworkonthemicrobiome’sroleindisease.Since Parkinson’s. What would be the value of an FDA-approved
then, he’s been exploring one of the most intriguing connections in drug for either condition? “I can’t give you a market size,”
human health: the “gut-brain axis”. The working thesis is that the bugs says Donabedian. “But if either one hits, it will be huge.”
inyourbellyhaveadirectimpactonyourneurologicalhealth,whichhas Chris Howerton, a biotechnology analyst at Jefferies,
profoundimplicationsforautism,Parkinson’sandAlzheimer’s. a New York investment bank, is less shy. “If every single
In2008,twoyearsafterjoiningtheCaltechfaculty,Mazmanian microbiome paper turns into a proven therapy, it could impact
publishedacoverstoryinNaturethatdocumentedhissuccessful the drug markets for most major categories of disease, which
treatmentofinflammatoryboweldiseaseinmicewithhumangut together were worth $350 billion in 2018 in the U.S. alone,” he
bacteria.ACaltechcolleague,PaulPatterson,whowasresearching says. “The breadth of the microbiome’s potential application
autisminmice,sawapossibleconnection to the digestive problems is really tantalizing.”
sufferedbyasmanyas60%of
childrenwithautism.
Togethertheystartedtesting
whetherhumangutbacteriacould
induceandameliorateautism-like
symptomsinmice.Inthemidst
oftheirearlywork,Pattersonwas
diagnosedwithfatalbraincancer.
InahospitalroomatUCLAwhere
Pattersonwasawaitingsurgery
inMay2014,Mazmaniansigned
papersgivingPattersonastakeina
companythatwoulddevelopdrugs

fromtheirexperiments.“Iwanted
Paultogettherecognitionofhis
contribution,”saysMazmanian.
Pattersondiedthefollowingmonth.
Mazmanianiscarryingontheir
researchinhissubbasementlab
atCaltech,where1,000germ-free
mice,deliveredbyCaesareansection
insterileconditionstoensurethey
arebacteria-free,liveinsideplastic-
encasedrectangularbubbles.Grad The Gut-Brain Connection
studentsdousethe animals’ food Caltech professor Sarkis Mazmanian in one of his Pasadena, California, labs. In a trailblazing study,
he transferred gut bacteria from humans with autism into sterile mice who then exhibited autism-like
with various gut microbes to test behaviors. “The most rigorous clinicians and investors,” he says, “realize this is a long journey we’re on.”

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