OpenBiome

F***l microbiota transplantation (FMT) has been studied in over 300 active and completed clinical trials, including some investigating chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, and autism, among other conditions. The influence of FMT on the gut microbiota is being looked at to restore microbial balance and improve symptoms. This highlights the growing interest in the role of the gut in overall health and disease.

Happy World Microbiome Day! We thought we'd share 5 facts about the gut microbiome to celebrate. What's your favorite microbiome fact?

Last week, OpenBiome CEO Julie Barrett O'Brien (right) participated in a panel discussion at the UMass Lowell Women's Leadership Conference, where she and fellow panelists Heidi Perry (Chief Technology Officer, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, second from right), Marisol Nobrega (Captain, Lowell Police Department, center), and moderator Elizabeth J. Altman (Associate Professor UMass Lowell Manning School of Business, left), discussed how they navigate change and challenges to lead complex organizations. Toward the end of the session, Julie proposed that audience members gain insight by asking themselves, "What's it like to be led by me?"

Recently, the OpenBiome team spent a Friday morning volunteering at Cradles to Crayons, an organization devoted to tackling childhood clothing insecurity by providing children with the items they need to thrive. We dove in to sort donations and ensure they met Cradles to Crayon's quality standards. Not only was it gratifying to help another mission-driven non-profit, it was incredibly fun to work as a team in an entirely different environment.

So proud to share that our senior clinical outreach associate, Imani DeCaille-Hodge, recently graduated with her MS in Epidemiology from the Boston University School of Public Health! BU recently profiled Imani, spotlighting her great work in the classroom and at OpenBiome. Imani’s knack for wrangling data and her commitment to improving public health is inspiring. We are lucky to have her on our team, and we can't wait to see all the amazing things she will accomplish in her career. Congratulations, Imani, on this impressive achievement! https://bit.ly/3yxiC4n

Leveraging Data to Make a Difference | SPH Imani Decaille-Hodge, a senior clinical outreach associate at OpenBiome and part-time master's student in epidemiology, plans to apply her degree to research at the nonprofit, which provides investigational treatments to patients with life-threatening infections.

Last night, we had the pleasure of hosting some of our clinical partners in Washington, DC, to celebrate over ten years of partnership and the shipment of over 70,000 FMTs in that timeframe. We are so grateful to our network of clinicians and providers for partnering with us to improve patient outcomes for those with C. Difficile. Here's to continued collaboration and healthier patients!

We’re honored to have our OpenBiome CEO Julie Barrett O’Brien (right) participate in the Peggy Lillis Foundation’s 2024 National C. Diff Advocacy Summit this week.
Since 2010, the foundation has been a beacon of education and advocacy for patients with C. Diff (Clostridioides difficile infection) and their families. We’re proud of the role OpenBiome has played in aiding in the recovery of thousands of C. Diff patients by supplying safe access to investigational FMT (F***l Microbiota Transplantation). What makes it exceptionally rewarding is the chance to talk with patients and their families.
Julie got to meet Maryanne (left) to learn of her daughter’s journey. Now 29, her daughter contracted C. Diff when she was 18 to the point where she was too weak to walk. Her mom became a huge patient advocate…eventually getting her daughter an OpenBiome FMT treatment. Weeks later, they walked in their local Thanksgiving day road race.

Here's to continued collaboration and advocacy for better outcomes for C. Diff patients everywhere.

The microbes in your gut can help treat antibiotic-resistant infections!

Sign up to donate stool, earn money, and save lives at https://www.openbiome.org/stool-donation

The typical OpenBiome stool donor earns $250 a month and provides enough material to treat 30 patients with recurrent C. difficile. (Donating more stool earns you more money and helps treat more patients!)

OpenBiome is looking for stool donors!

Sign up today at https://www.openbiome.org/stool-donation

A typical donor makes 250 dollars a month while helping us serve patients with antibiotic-resistant C. difficile infections. Since 2013, OpenBiome donors have helped treat more than 55,000 patients across the country!

Racism is a public health crisis. Police brutality is a public health crisis.

As a public health nonprofit, our mission is in support of access to healthcare—access that has been denied to Black communities through a centuries-long history of structural racism. Racial justice is a shared responsibility and our work is inextricably tied to a health system that has perpetuated inequalities in this country.

We join in support of our communities protesting, donating, and speaking out against the murders of Black people in America. We commit to challenging blatant and subtle forms of racism that show up in our work or organization across healthcare and medical research. Black lives matter.

Statement on Health Impacts of Racism and Police Brutality — OpenBiome Racism is a public health crisis. Police brutality is a public health crisis. As a public health nonprofit, our mission is in support of access to healthcare—access that has been denied to Black communities through a centuries-long history of structural racism. Racial justice is a shared responsib

COVID-19 Update:
We are still shipping FMT to clinicians and hospitals. All material being shipped was collected and manufactured prior to December 1, 2019, and follows all FDA guidance on COVID and FMT. Learn more about the steps we are taking to protect our material from COVID-19 here: https://www.openbiome.org/covid19

COVID-19 — OpenBiome OpenBiome is carefully monitoring the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, and taking steps to keep our patients, stool donors, and staff safe.

We have some important announcements related to our screening program:

COVID-19:
OpenBiome is not shipping any material produced after December 1, 2019 and is compliant with all FDA guidance related to COVID-19. Material produced after December 1, 2019 will remain quarantined until we can confirm it meets our safety and quality standards, including for COVID-19. We are also proactively screening all of our donors for COVID-19, risk factors, and exposure. There has been no report of SARS-CoV-2 transmitted through FMT. Read more here: https://www.openbiome.org/covid19

Risk of E. coli infection transmission:
We have made some important changes to our donor screening process following an FDA safety alert on the risk of E. coli transmission. Read more here: https://www.openbiome.org/press-releases/2020/3/12/openbiome-announces-enhanced-donor-screening-protocols-following-fda-alert

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or concerns.

COVID-19 — OpenBiome OpenBiome is carefully monitoring the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, and taking steps to keep our patients, stool donors, and staff safe.

In next month’s The Lancet, we analyze the rapid growth of FMT research over the past 8 years. Looking at the 384 clinical trials reveals that while researchers are studying a more diverse range of indications, clinical trials to date have focused primarily on adults in high-income countries.

To help address this disparity, we’ve launched OpenBiome's Global Health Program—our first study with the University of Cape Town in South Africa focuses on pediatric malnutrition.

Learn more at https://www.openbiome.org/globalhealth, and contact us if you’re interested in getting involved!

Global disparities in faecal microbiota transplantation research Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is recommended therapy for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection in adult and paediatric patients1 and is being explored as treatment for a growing range of microbiome-mediated diseases.2 Although microbiome-based therapies could play a key role in glob...

It’s not too late to make a New Year’s Resolution! Save lives, earn money, and support scientific research by joining our community of stool donors.

If you live or work in Boston, Somerville, or Cambridge, MA: apply today at GiveP**p.org.

As the New Year approaches, we thank the community of stool donors, partner clinicians, clinical researchers, medical staff, administrators, patient advocates, and supporters for working to serve more than 10,000 patients with recurrent C. difficile this year.

Operating a stool bank may seem like an unusual job (and in many ways it is!), but it's still easy to get preoccupied with day-to-day responsibilities. The end of the year is a welcome time to reflect on the larger meaning of our mission. Read our look back at 2019 here: https://mailchi.mp/1dee83cd6ee1/openbiome-2019-in-review

We wish you a happy and healthy 2020, and look forward to working with you in the years to come!

The CDC has classified C. difficile as an urgent threat. Half a million people in the U.S. contract C. difficile each year, and the infection returns in 1 out of every 5 patients. During learn a few simple steps from the CDC to help protect against repeat infections: https://www.cdc.gov/cdiff/after.html.

For patients who have recently had an FMT, find more information on minimizing the risk of another C. difficile infection athttp://openbiome.org/s/Post-FMT-Patient-Guide.pdf

You've recovered from C. diff. Now what? You need to protect yourself from a repeat infection. Here’s some advice for life after C. diff.

This November, for , our friends at the Peggy Lillis Foundation are raising awareness of the risk factors, symptoms, and treatments for C. difficile - the most common hospital-acquired infection, affecting up to 500,000 Americans each year, and classified by the CDC as an “urgent antibiotic-resistant threat.” Learn more about risk factors and prevention with at https://www.cdiff.org. You can also learn more on our website at https://www.openbiome.org/about-cdiff

seec.diff

Today, we published a research letter in The New England Journal of Medicine presenting our donor screening program - which has accepted just 2.5% of over 15k potential donors screened since 2014 - adding our experience to the important topic of rigorous donor screening for FMT.

Read our NEJM piece here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1913670

And our press release here: https://www.openbiome.org/press-releases/2019/10/30/openbiome-highlights-donor-screening-program-in-new-england-journal-of-medicine

Donor Screening for F***l Microbiota Transplantation | NEJM Correspondence from The New England Journal of Medicine — Donor Screening for F***l Microbiota Transplantation

Thank you for supporting OpenBiome’s Patient Assistance Program!

On Wednesday, we were excited to see many of you at OpenBiome’s trivia night at Remnant Brewing Co. in Somverville MA. The fundraising event featured some friendly competition, food and drinks, and a powerful speech from our Executive Director, Carolyn Edelstein, commemorating OpenBiome's 50,000th treatment.

Every dollar raised from our trivia night fundraiser will go towards covering the cost of an FMT for patients with recurrent C. difficile. For such patients, an FMT can mean an end to months of immense suffering as well as the chance to return to a normal life.”

If you'd like to join the effort, please consider making a contribution here: https://www.openbiome.org/donate. Thanks to a generous offer from one of our earliest supporters, all donations to this campaign will be 100% matched! This contribution has doubled the impact from every one of our trivia guests, and will double the impact that you can make with a donation today.

Thank you again for your support and engagement—we look forward to sharing new milestones in patient care for the years to come!

Interested in learning more about FMT? Majdi Osman, OpenBiome’s Clinical Program Director, and other doctors give their thoughts on the potential and pitfalls of an emerging medical treatment.

The potential and pitfalls of f***l transplants F***l microbiota transplantation, or FMT, has emerged as an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. But there’s still much scientists don’t know about the procedure.

"Much like blood banks, stool banks create economies of scale and allow for standardization of oversight and safeguards that physicians screening their own stool donors would struggle to replicate. Centralized stool banks are a key part of the strategy to protect patients from risks associated with unregulated or 'do it yourself' FMT."

Read our Op-Ed in Scientific American today: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-clarification-about-f***l-microbiota-transplantation/

A Clarification about F***l Microbiota Transplantation A recent Scientific American essay overlooked some important points

Ask us anything! Today at 11 AM ET, our own Dr. Majdi Osman will be live on Reddit answering Qs about in honor of !

Join us: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/c644xe/askscience_ama_series_im_dr_majdi_osman_an/

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Majdi Osman, an infectious diseases physician and Clinical Program Director at OpenBiome - a nonprofit stool bank that provides material for f***l transplants. Ask me anything! Today is World Microbiome Day! I'm here to talk about f***l transplants and microbiome research. F***l transplants are exactly what they sound...

“It’s exactly what it sounds like!” Our executive director, Carolyn Edelstein, spoke on a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival this weekend alongside microbiome and FMT experts Dr. Colleen Kraft of Emory University and Dr. Garabet Yeretssian of the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Watch a video of their discussion here - including an important dive into FMT safety - and learn more about The Power of P**p!

The Power of P**p: F***l Transplants | Aspen Ideas If the idea of f***l transplants seems momentarily disquieting, consider that they achieve a 90 percent cure rate for the devastating intestinal infection known as C. diff when antibiotics fail to clear it. F***l transplants are also being studied as treatment for colitis, Crohn’s disease, and oth...