Caelus' microbes for metabolic syndrome

Of the handful of companies aiming to harness the therapeutic potential of the microbiome, Caelus Health is the first to reach the clinic with a bacterial therapeutic for metabolic syndrome: an oral formulation of Eubacterium hallii.

Caelus spun out from Academic Medical Center and Wageningen University and Research Centre in 2014 based on IP from its co-founders, Max Nieuwdorp and Willem de Vos. In a 2012 Gastroenterology paper, the co-founders' team showed fecal microbial transplant of gut microbiota from lean donors increased insulin sensitivity in metabolic syndrome patients and correlated with an increase in the gut populations of microbes, including E. hallii, that produce the short-chain fatty acid butyrate. Nieuwdorp is a professor of internal medicine and chair of diabetes at Academic Medical Center; de Vos is a professor at Wageningen University...