Replicating the dynamic nature of human physiology in test tubes for better drug development and treatment selection.

Accurate Synthetic Models

For Drug Development

It is time to move beyond traditional clinical models to a solution that provides adaptive, scalable, and accurate simulations of human physiology for efficient and effective drug development. It is time to think beyond the mouse.

For Treatment Selection

Antibiotic resistance remains an enormous challenge leading to millions of deaths each year. It is time to provide accurate human physiology models to improve antibiotic treatment selection for patients in need.

About Synthbiome

SynthBiome’s overall mission is to design synthetic environments to mimic the physiological conditions that microorganisms encounter in their natural environments. We manufacture specialized growth media, including synthetic media that imitate CF-sputum and chronic wound environments.

Founded By:

Marvin Whiteley, PhD

Georgia Tech

Biological models of of disease

Biological models are vital for studying disease, offering controlled and reproducible environments to explore everything from biological mechanisms underlying the disease, over treatment development to host-pathogen interactions. Conventional in vitro models fail to reproduce crucial aspects of chronic human infections, such as the presence of complex stresses and chemical cues. While animal models have some advantages, they are generally expensive, not necessarily more precise than in vitro models and might present ethical concerns. The purpose of SynthBiome is to design highly accurate synthetic models which improves the quality of the scientific findings and paves the way to obtain better clinical outcomes.

Our Technology

We have developed a quantitative framework using gene expression to design the most accurate synthetic model for a given scientific question. For bacterial pathogens infecting humans (our current focus) this means that we ensure that the pathogen is in as close a physiological state in the newly designed synthetic model to the state in the infection site. Accurately recreating the infection environment results in pathogen behaviors that mimic those at the infection site, with obvious advantages for the scientific and clinical findings

SynthBiome’s Solutions

We focus on the design and development of synthetic models that optimize specific physiological functions important for our customers goals. We perform all the wet lab work and data analysis needed to meet our customer’s specific needs. We finalize the project with the manufacturing and delivering of a fully tested accurate synthetic media. Please contact us to start a conversation on how this can help your projects to succeed.

Pre-designed Models

For Cystic Fibrosis Research: SCFM1 and SCFM2

All versions of synthetic cystic fibrosis medium (SCFM) are defined as nutritionally complex, synthetic media originally based on the free amino acid, anion, cation, and carbon-source profiles from CF sputum (Palmer et al. 2007). Our SCFMs are benchmarked by the Accuracy Score (AS2) as defined in Cornforth et al. (2020) and measured for the Pseudomonas aeruginosa CF-lung core genome as defined in Lewin et al. (2023).

Academic Literature

The following papers from Marvin Whiteley’s lab are starting points for the respective versions of SCFM:

SCFM1 described in Palmer et al. (2007)
SCFM2 is SCFM1 supplemented with DNA, mucin, GlcNAc, and DOPC, see Turner et al. (2015)

SCFM1

SCFM1 is a medium suitable for the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in an environment that emulates the conditions of the cystic fibrosis lung infection. SCFM1 is a clear, sterile medium.

SCFM2

SCFM2 is a medium suitable for the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and/or Staphylococcus aureus in an environment that emulates the conditions of the cystic fibrosis lung infection. SCFM2 is a turbid, sterile medium.

Quality control of our in vitro models:

During our quality control steps, we test for adequate growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in SCFM1 and SCFM2. Furthermore, we test for adequate growth of Staphylococcus aureus in SCFM2.

SCFM2 has been used to study, among others, the following bacterial species:

Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Staphylococcus aureus
Burkholderia cenocepacia
Haemophilus influenzae

For Chronic Wound Infection Research: LCWB

As an in vitro model for chronic wound infections, we offer the LCWB (Lubbock Chronic Wound Biofilm Model), see Sun et al. (2008). It supports growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis.

In addition to media for CF- and chronic wound-related research, we are also developing new synthetic environments for other human infections (esp. oral, skin and urinary tract infections).