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Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

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Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#21

Post by dannygrannick »

memco wrote: post #18

Will the early access users get access to the treatment recommendations when the ability to give recommendations for treatment becomes available or will they have to do another round to get that? If I can do the test now and get the updates later I’d be a lot more comfortable signing up.

We'll be continually updating your early access report with new discoveries we uncover along the way, but we may not be able to provide treatment recommendations from the early access test once we flip to clinical. Things like lifestyle, diet, hygiene can be provided. Regardless, I'd recommend retaking the test when we launch the clinical product since your oral microbiome may have changed since the time you took the early access test, so the recommendations between now and then might be different!

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#23

Post by david_l_lin »

eaurouge wrote: post #20

> What do you do with my data? > Your privacy is a top priority for us. Our test will pick up some of your DNA - it’s impossible to completely avoid - but we only look at the microbes from your saliva and we take steps in our workflow to throw out human data during analysis. Can you do better than this? What exactly do you do with the data? What do you store? How do you store it? What do you throw away? When do you t…

Short of giving away some of our secret sauce and analysis pipeline, what we do is sequence the nucleic acids in your saliva in a de-identified fashion such that only Bristle scientists can match your sequence data with any potential identifiers. As data comes off the sequencer, we use a bioinformatic pipeline to remove 98%+ of human genetic data prior to any analysis such that its impossible to derive meaningful genetic information from the sample. The end result is that we effectively store only microbiome sequence data and not your personal genetic data. We store all of your data in accordance with HIPAA guidelines.

Your de-identfiied data (metadata and microbiome data) may be used in aggregate analysis to mine for novel biomarkers of disease, and to develop novel therapeutics targeting the oral microbiome for the treatment of disease.

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#24

Post by jabyess »

david_l_lin wrote: post #23
eaurouge wrote: post #20

> What do you do with my data? > Your privacy is a top priority for us. Our test will pick up some of your DNA - it’s impossible to completely avoid - but we only look at the microbes from your saliva and we take steps in our workflow to throw out human data during analysis. Can you do better than this? What exactly do you do with the data? What do you store? How do you store it? What do you throw away? When do you t…

Short of giving away some of our secret sauce and analysis pipeline, what we do is sequence the nucleic acids in your saliva in a de-identified fashion such that only Bristle scientists can match your sequence data with any potential identifiers. As data comes off the sequencer, we use a bioinformatic pipeline to remove 98%+ of human genetic data prior to any analysis such that its impossible to derive meaningful gen…

Why not put all this info on the site?

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#25

Post by david_l_lin »

jabyess wrote: post #24
david_l_lin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short of giving away some of our secret sauce and analysis pipeline, what we do is sequence the nucleic acids in your saliva in a de-identified fashion such that only Bristle scientists can match your sequence data with any potential identifiers. As data comes off the sequencer, we use a bioinformatic pipeline to remove 98%+ of human genetic data prior to any analysis such that its impossible to derive meaningful gen…

Why not put all this info on the site?

That's a great suggestion, we'll work on getting this added to our list of FAQs.

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#26

Post by dflock »

> detect the earliest signs of cavities and gum disease - then provide evidence-based recommendations and treatments to help prevent them.

What preventative treatment is this? If it isn't just "brush & floss", then what is it? If it's so great, why not just tell everyone about it now - why do you need a microbiome test?

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#27

Post by daemonk »

Are you guys depleting host or enriching microbial? Are you analyzing the data as a composition via log contrasts? Are you using available pipelines (kraken, metaphlan, etc) or something custom? Any plans on doing a functional pathway analysis (ie. humann pipeline) on top of the microbial analysis?

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#29

Post by david_l_lin »

daemonk wrote: post #27

Are you guys depleting host or enriching microbial? Are you analyzing the data as a composition via log contrasts? Are you using available pipelines (kraken, metaphlan, etc) or something custom? Any plans on doing a functional pathway analysis (ie. humann pipeline) on top of the microbial analysis?

Great questions! We implement a host-depletion step in both the wet lab, to increase sequencing depth of the microbiome, and dry lab. You may be concerned about potential bias introduced, and we've done some extensive research with our depletion and sequencing methods to reduce the cost of the test while also maintaining integrity of the microbiome profiles.

Regarding pipelines: we use a custom pipeline that is similar in principle to available pipelines you mentioned (part of our secret sauce). We are actively working on functional analysis, as we hope to eventually develop targeted therapeutics that exploit microbial pathways to prevent disease.

Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health

#30

Post by david_l_lin »

dflock wrote: post #26

> detect the earliest signs of cavities and gum disease - then provide evidence-based recommendations and treatments to help prevent them. What preventative treatment is this? If it isn't just "brush & floss", then what is it? If it's so great, why not just tell everyone about it now - why do you need a microbiome test?

Each microbiome is unique, and preventive measures against bacteria that cause gum disease may not be effective against bacteria that contribute to cavities and vice versa. The solutions (such as prescription-strength fluoridated toothpastes, antimicrobial mouthwashes, or personalized probiotics) that we plan to recommend may require a prescription that we anticipate we will be able to fulfill only after a diagnostic evaluation. This provider-mediated solution is critical to avoiding unnecessary and potentially harmful prescriptions, while also preventing disease.

We're working on building a knowledge base, as there are several pseudoscience wellness recommendations that have no clinical validity, and will share these on our blog that you can find on our website. A Bristle mission is to also develop more effective personalized therapeutics and oral care products that effectively treat microbiome dysbiosis to prevent disease prior to the onset of symptoms and irreversible disease.

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