The Asia Microbiota Bank, known as AMB, has hired microbiologist and bioinformatician Subramanya Rao, PhD. The Hong Kong company calls itself the first stool bank in the city. It announced the hire on November 16, 2017. Rao will lead lab production and research into gut bacteria and how they relate to health and disease.
AMB uses next-generation sequencing and strain-level analysis, because its goal is better results from fecal microbiota transplantation, or FMT, in Asia. Rao will also focus on bacteria clusters that are unique to Asian populations.
One of the company’s co-founders welcomed Rao, since the hire strengthens the team. He said Rao’s skills in microbial community analysis would let the team study the gut microbiome in more depth. He also said the company hopes FMT data gathered across Asia will point to key strains that shape intestinal health.
Rao has spent more than a decade studying microbes in soil, water, air and people. At Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he compared the microbiomes of cancer patients with those of healthy people to find biomarkers. His work also covers E. coli strains, life at extreme-weather sites and bioinformatics tools. Before joining AMB, he took part in the Earth Microbiome Project, a global study recently published in Nature. His research has taken him to the USA, Singapore, Antarctica, Oman, India and Thailand.
According to Rao, gut microbiome data for Asian populations is in short supply, so AMB plans to gather more of it. Under his lead, the company will publish a health report in December 2017. That report will map the microbial diversity of its donor group. AMB places these donors among the healthiest one percent of Hong Kong residents. The company said early patient treatments using material from these donors have already started, with positive results.