Dr. Heiman, a former obesity researcher at Eli Lilly, said that interventions to manipulate gut microbiota were worthy of deeper investigation. “In the past we were content to say ‘you’ve got bacteria to help you digest food’ – but little was known about what they do, whether they convert sugars to short-chain fatty acids, whether they might send out signals that may, for example, make you crave sugar. The exciting things is learning what all the signals are, and how they communicate with the body,” he said.
MicroBiome Therapeutics, owner of a patent on the investigational product, sponsored the study. Dr Heiman is an employee of MicroBiome Therapeutics, and another coauthor disclosed funding from the company. Dr. Hsia and three other coauthors reported no conflicts of interest.