Interesting work!
Are there any treatments that kill the pathogenic but leave the beneficial microbes?
Does mouthwash kill them equally? What about h2o2 or xylitol?
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
#52Do most pathogenic microbes tend to be gram negative? If so why is that?
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#53Do you find long term partners tend to have the same oral microbiome?
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#54Can you drop some non legal plain language on what you do with data? Frankly speaking, I 100% would assume you're going to sell my DNA and information to huge body of people.
We do not sell your DNA and do not have future plans to do so, in fact we don't currently store your personal genome information, and would inform you if this were to change. We will ask for consent before doing any analysis on your personal DNA, if we were to expand studies to include human genomic markers.
yeah but do you give access to information that comes from users engaging with your service?
is your revenue generated from anything other than products and dtc services?
ive just become skeptical of any company suggesting they can be profitable/have a future without a data pipeline that allows others to buy their data, run analysis on data, build models on data.
and i believe in the near future we run a real risk of insurance prices being based on dna and models of health built on user data.
anyways, blah blah blah, seems like a great idea!
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#55Do you find long term partners tend to have the same oral microbiome?
Great question! We haven't looked into this ourselves yet, but a 2014 study found "that average partners have a more similar oral microbiota composition compared to unrelated individuals, with by far most pronounced similarity for communities associated with the tongue surface" and is "most pronounced in couples with relatively high intimate kiss frequencies".
https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186...
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#56Interesting work! Are there any treatments that kill the pathogenic but leave the beneficial microbes? Does mouthwash kill them equally? What about h2o2 or xylitol?
A majority of the products marketed today non-specifically ablate the microbiome. While they are effective at reducing the microbial titer as a whole, they are ineffective at specifically targeting pathogenic microbes associated with disease.
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#57Do most pathogenic microbes tend to be gram negative? If so why is that?
One major feature of gram-negative bacteria is their production of LPS, which is inherently inflammatory and can contribute to disease. That said, many gram-positive bacteria can also be pathogenic. The relationship between bacterial pathogenicity is more nuanced than just their cell wall composition. We believe that Bristle can serve as a platform to reveal some of the host-pathogen interactions in the oral cavity.
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#58How does your IRB feel about having people pay to be part of a study? Do you look for specific non-dental disease factors, such as microbes that can lead to damage to the heart valves? What about signs of oral cancers (would those be strained out in the process of rejecting the human cells?)
There have been some intriguing studies associating the oral microbiome with systemic diseases such as cardiovascular indications, diabetes, oral cancers, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Some studies even suggest causal links between pathogens that reside in the mouth and arterial plaque and even neurodegeneration.
With the Bristle platform, we will have the resolution to dive deeper into these associations, and potentially improve patient outcomes through targeting the oral microbiome.
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well said! Incumbents in the space have a lot to gain from the status quo of "drill, fill, and bill". This has limited the adoption of new diagnostic technology and advances in preventive health. We hope to eventually replace observational screenings that detect the onset of irreversible symptoms with early detection and interventions that prevent disease altogether.
Are you guys familiar with Dr. Ellie Phillips? I'm definitely not a dental health expert, but she seems to be objective about how tooth decay occurs, see: https://drellie.com/2020/10/19/what-happens-to-teeth-when-yo... I wonder if she'd have useful input on your product. Of course, she's trying to promote her own stuff (she sells Xylitol mints) but she also advocates for OTS treatments like Listerine.
I'm not familiar with her, but I agree she does seem objective and could have some useful input. We'll reach out.
Thanks for sending!
Re: Launch HN: Bristle (YC W21) – At-home microbiome test to improve oral health
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do not sell your DNA and do not have future plans to do so, in fact we don't currently store your personal genome information, and would inform you if this were to change. We will ask for consent before doing any analysis on your personal DNA, if we were to expand studies to include human genomic markers.
yeah but do you give access to information that comes from users engaging with your service? is your revenue generated from anything other than products and dtc services? ive just become skeptical of any company suggesting they can be profitable/have a future without a data pipeline that allows others to buy their data, run analysis on data, build models on data. and i believe in the near future we run a real risk of…
We do not sell personal microbiome, genetic, or survey-related data and don't have plans to do so. We will make every effort to keep your personal data yours. We de-identify all your data so that it can only be analyzed as an aggregate, so while your microbiome data and health survey data contribute to new scientific discoveries, they also remain completely personal. It will be nearly impossible for interested parties (such as insurance companies) to get a hold of your personal information on the Bristle platform and use it as leverage for their pricing. Hopefully this helps relieve some of your concerns, as we have similar concerns around health-related privacy, too!