#Finch therapeutics full#
#Finch therapeutics trial#

#Finch therapeutics full#

The research was enough to convince Smith he needed a new way to help the microbiome field reach its full potential. OpenBiome also facilitates research into the microbiome, uncovering surprising links between the bacteria in our guts and a range of complex conditions like depression, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and autism. diff, making it the largest stool bank in the world. Today OpenBiome works with around 1,300 health care providers across the country and has helped treat about 55,000 patients struggling with C.

Along the way, Smith partnered with OpenBiome cofounders Andrew Noh and James Burgess, who were attending the MIT Sloan School of Management Zain Kassam, a postdoc who had worked with Smith in the lab of MIT Professor Eric Alm and Carolyn Edelstein, now the executive director of OpenBiome, who is also Smith’s wife. The effort led to OpenBiome, a nonprofit stool bank that collects and screens stool samples, then ships the formulations to hospitals to conduct transplants. diff each year - so he set out to expand access to medically certified stool transplants. Smith knew his relative was not alone - about a half million people contract C. The procedure was successful, but risky, and is not recommended by doctors. Increasingly desperate, Smith’s relative ended up conducting the stool transplant himself with the help of a friend and an at-home enema kit. Still, there were very few places collecting stool samples or conducting the procedure at the time.

#Finch therapeutics trial#

Smith saw his relative gradually grow discouraged with conventional treatment options as he went through seven unsuccessful rounds of antibiotics over the course of one painful year.Īround that time, a clinical trial showed the promise of using stool transplants to restore gut bacteria in people struggling with C. diff, a potentially life-threatening infection that can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain. Then, while pursuing his PhD in microbiology at MIT, a family member contracted C. Smith always thought he’d spend his career doing academic research. There have been a number of clinical studies that have reported benefits to restoring gut health, and that’s our north star: the clinical data. “The biology is fairly complex, and we’re still in the early days of unraveling it, but there have been a number of clinical studies that have reported benefits to restoring gut health, and that’s our north star: the clinical data,” Finch co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Smith PhD ’14 says. Now, as the research community continues to discover connections between gut health and metabolic, immune, and cognitive functions, Finch is developing a broad group of drugs aimed at conditions including chronic hepatitis B, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and autism spectrum disorder. The company recently became the first to show a microbiome therapy could reach its primary goals in a Food and Drug Administration trial for patients with Clostridioides difficile infection ( C. The company is leveraging its deep connections and expertise in the field to reach a number of milestones in microbiome therapeutics - and it’s outpacing older, better-funded competitors in the process. But those bacterial colonies went relatively unexplored until recently, when new computational tools made it possible to understand their makeup in more detail.įinch Therapeutics is one of a number of companies trying to turn that new perspective into new treatments. The human gut microbiome contains trillions of bacteria that play important roles for the proper functioning of our bodies. As scientists continue searching for treatments to some of the most complex diseases and conditions, they’re increasingly looking to our gut.