Designing microbiome therapeutics to help cure cancer

Up to 80% of our immune cells exist in the gut, and unlike our genome, which is mostly fixed from birth, the microbiome can be modified by diet, overall lifestyle and microbial therapeutics. A healthy microbiome increases the efficacy of drugs such as checkpoint inhibitors which take the blindfold off of the immune system, allowing it to recognize, attack, and kill cancer cells. Unfortunately, 70% of cancer patients don’t respond to this drug treatment due to severely damaged microbiomes which have limited kinds of bacteria. To this end, Stephanie Culler and her team at Persephone Biome are creating microbiome therapeutics that can help all cancer patients, but most importantly to convert non-responders into responders.