There’s less than a week to go until our Future of the Microbiome Summit kicks off. The virtual event will combine the latest research and commercial strategy and give those interested in the microbiome space a forward-looking agenda.
We’ve got three incredible days planned, with so many world-class speakers that I could quite literally pick out any session as a ‘highlight’ and it would be worthy.
So, rather than pick out, any specific talks as a ‘must attend’ I’m going to pick out three reasons why you really don’t want to miss any of it.
So, here we go with three reasons to attend the Future of the Microbiome Summit.
Reason 1: Actual cutting-edge science
According to PubMed there were 20,419 studies published on the microbiome in 2020. In 2021, we’re already at more than 5,500, and it’s only halfway through March!
That means, on average, 56 articles on the microbiome were published every single day last year. And this year its currently averaging at 76 per day. It’s fair to say that’s a f*ck-ton of science out there.
Yet, when you attend conferences you see the same 15 presentations time after time. What is it with that?!
We’ve made a real effort to pull together some of the most cutting-edge and recent research.
On the first day alone, we are covering FOUR studies published in in the last 60 days … and three of those were published in Nature!!
Don’t believe me? Here are the links:
- Gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy ageing and predicts survival in humans
- Microbiome connections with host metabolism and habitual diet from 1,098 deeply phenotyped individuals
- Metagenomic insights of the infant microbiome community structure and function across multiple sites in the United States
- Impact of Probiotic B. infantis EVC001 Feeding in Premature Infants on the Gut Microbiome, Nosocomially Acquired Antibiotic Resistance, and Enteric Inflammation
Reason 2: We’re taking personalization ‘beyond testing’
Personalization in food and health has been one of the hottest topics to talk about in an article or at a conference for at least the last 5 years. Yet when it comes to the microbiome, it seems the conversations are solely focused on expensive testing kits that involve sending your stool to somebody.
That’s clearly one aspect of personalization. And it’s definitely an important one. However, I’m excited that our session on personalization goes beyond that – and starts to look at the whole ecosystem of solutions and methods for personalization, in addition to looking at how cutting-edge population data (like those cool studies we linked to above) can help inform more personalized approaches to science, business, and public health.
I’m delighted our session on personalization will be led by two of the brightest stars in the space in Mariette Abrahams, CEO and founder of the Qina personalized nutrition intelligence platform, and Maria Kardakova, CEO of Mary’s Recipes meal planning app and senior science & innovation manager at Atlas Biomed.
Together Mariette and Maria will provide incredible insights on how true personalization in health and nutrition will move beyond simply testing microbiome samples in the future.
Reason 3: We’re taking a truly multi-disciplinary approach
Great things happen when you bring together people who wouldn’t usually mix.
Bringing together people with similar and overlapping interest, but who would not necessarily ever talk or listen to each other is a truly beautiful thing that can achieve so much.
Many in the microbiome space can testify to the benefits of taking a multi-disciplinary approach to science. Some of the greatest research in microbiome health simply wouldn’t happen without this approach. Yet when it comes to applying this science into commercial and business strategy, we tend to drop this approach and we let everything become siloed and separated again.
I’ve already written about why I think this approach is wrong, and why our Future of the Microbiome event is trying to change that. So you should check out my previous musings if you want to read more.
If not, then simply know that one of the most exciting things that I think our event does is begin to tie together the overlapping worlds of food, nutrition and drug development, truly a continuum we don’t pay enough attention to.
Our aim is to build a community of independent researchers and industry professionals with expertise right across the board – from fermented foods to drug development – and everything in between.
That journey begins next week. And we’d love you to join us …
~Nathan
