The new space was announced as part of a “strategic expansion” of the company’s R&D footprint to work on its next generation of ingredients.
Biohm, a microbiome-focused research and product company, currently holds two ingredients in its portfolio: Mycohsa, a probiotic blend that combines bacterial and fungal communities with a digestive enzyme to encourage gut microbiome balance, and Phorum, a postbiotic that also contains bacteria and fungi to support immune function.
The addition of the lab space will allow for the development of new probiotic and postbiotic strains through its Symbiont platform, Kristin Wilhoyte, vice president of marketing at Biohm, told NutraIngredients.
“This expansion allows us to move more rapidly from discovery to commercialization by increasing our internal capabilities for strain characterization, stability testing, mechanism-of-action studies and formulation development,” she explained. “It positions Biohm to bring clinically relevant, differentiated microbiome solutions to market more efficiently.”
Biohm’s R&D expansion follows on from the announcement made earlier this year that it had secured series B funding of $4.52 million, which Wilhoyte previously explained would allow the company to add talent and build out its AI platform for new ingredient identification.
Room to grow
The lab space is already fully operational, equipped with the instrumentation to support R&D, Wilhoyte said. As the needs of Biohm develop, the location is also designed to scale in strategic phases as research initiatives expand, allowing the company to hire additional staff members and to grow its capabilities over time, she added.
Located in Portal Innovations’ Science Square Campus in Atlanta, the site is home to approximately 4,000 life sciences companies. The company noted that three members of its leadership team are already based in the Atlanta area, which made the location “a natural choice.”
According to a report by CBRE, Atlanta ranks 10th in the United States for life sciences job growth, with R&D employment growth ranked 4th nationally.
“Portal Innovations’ Science Square location was selected because it offers a state-of-the-art research environment within a rapidly growing life sciences and biotechnology hub,” Wilhoyte said. “Being adjacent to Georgia Tech provides proximity to world-class academic research, scientific talent and future collaboration opportunities.”
Specifically, the R&D that will be undertaken at the lab will focus on advancing the company’s Mycohsa and Phorum products, but Wilhoyte noted that work will also be undertaken to target future proprietary ingredients targeting areas such as immune health, women’s health and healthy aging.
Fungi and the microbiome
In the lab expansion announcement, Sam Schatz, CEO of Biohm, stated that the company is focused on advancing the science of the gut microbiome, particularly the “under-recognized role of fungi.”
Wilhoyte expanded on this by explaining that much of microbiome research and product innovation has focused “almost exclusively” on bacteria, despite the gut also containing a distinct fungal community.
“While Saccharomyces boulardii has been used successfully for many years, it remains one of the very few commercially utilized fungal strains,” she said. “Beyond it, there is significant untapped potential to better understand, characterize and responsibly commercialize additional fungal species with health applications. Biohm’s work aims to expand the scientific and product landscape by advancing fungal-inclusive microbiome solutions that reflect the true biology of the gut ecosystem.”
In the future, Biohm expects that the next wave of microbiome innovation will occur by addressing both sides of the ecosystem together, bacterial and fungal, Willhoyte added.
