New technologies allow researchers to investigate more and more deeply into the chemistry of the human microbiome and to obtain new compounds suitable for pharmaceutical use.
A new opportunity comes from the analysis of the so called “aquatic microbiota“: a method based on the growth of non-culturable microorganisms in the aquatic environment that allows to track down and recover traces of secondary metabolites.
According to Ross Youngs, CEO and founder of Biosortia Pharmaceuticals, a startup that is developing this method, the new approach will make thousands of currently unknown chemicals available. “We have already demonstrated – explains Youngs – the therapeutic feasibility of this approach through which we’ve been able to find immune system modulators. Biosortia is tapping a source that has never been tapped before».
