Gregory Kuehn is the co-founder and COO of Metabiomics, a company that has been developing tools and techniques for analyzing the human gut microbiome for the last 15 years. Their primary focus is on the early detection and prevention of colon cancer through the identification of colonic polyps, which are precursors to colon cancer. With the combination of carefully-controlled clinical trials and machine learning methods that view the entire microbial community in a stool sample, Metabiomics has developed a non-invasive test to predict the presence or absence of polyps in any given patient. Since analysis of the gut microbiome can also be used to characterize the general health of the lining of the gut, these tests will also be used as diagnostic tools for IBD and IBS. Metabiomics is developing several tests that will be available to patients through their primary care or gastroenterologist’s office. “It’s an exploding field, it’s kind of a paradigm shift in that we are looking at human health differently and we are starting to take the health of the microbial communities inside us and on our skin a lot more seriously,” says Kuehn. Kuehn also addresses how the gut microbiome is affected by diet, and how this correlates to high levels of colon cancer in certain regions of the world, and the complete absence of colon cancer in other parts of the world. Press play to learn more, and visit metabiomics.com.