Microbial consortia and IP in Europe

23-08-2022

Ine Vanderleyden

Microbial consortia and IP in Europe

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Protecting new and inventive innovations in this increasingly crowded area is essential, explains Ine Vanderleyden of Mewburn Ellis.

Our body hosts trillions of microorganisms that live symbiotically on and within the human body. This ‘microbiome’ is essential to our health and microbial imbalance or dysbiosis increases the susceptibility to many diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), liver disease, atherosclerosis, and other severe pathologies. Given its central role in health and disease, the microbiome has become a prominent therapeutic target.

Microbial consortia

In two early proof-of-concept studies, researchers were able to restore microbiome balance in patients with IBD and Clostridum Difficile infection using Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT), essentially replacing the ‘bad’ bacteria with ‘good’ ones from healthy donors. These initial studies provided an impetus for the development of therapeutic compositions that contain microorganisms, with many targeting the gut.


Microbial, microbiome, consortia, patents, European patent office, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), liver disease, atherosclerosis, T cells

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