Dr. Jonathan Scheiman holding up a petri dish

"We're studying the 0.01% most fit portion of the human population in terms of optimal health and physiology. We look to identify what's unique and/or enriched in their microbiomes and then translate this biological data into next-generation health solutions for every body."

- Jonathan Scheiman, Founder & CEO

Years of Cutting-Edge Research to Create Next-Gen Health Innovations

We developed our microbiome technology at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, at Harvard. We are believers in form-fits function and taking a cue from natural selection. Therefore in efforts to develop next-generation health solutions to benefit broader society, we had a radical idea: identify what works in the biology of the most fit people in the world to drive their optimal physiology.

This process entails harnessing meta-genomic information from the gut of super performers to better understand what is driving optimal exercise physiology. We assess this microbiome data through bioinformatic analysis to create a report of all the microbes, and their corresponding metabolic functions, in their gut. We compare each performer's data to others as well as more sedentary segments of the population. Additionally, we analyze how their microbiome changes longitudinally between performance and recovery phases. This is a wealth of information that we use to identify novel probiotic candidates. Once identified, we use microbiology and culturomics techniques to purify, validate, and develop our strains for functional testing and commercialization.

This fullstack process has led to the discovery and translation of our first two products: Nella for gut + sleep health and V•Nella to fight fatigue and promote endurance. However, we’re not done. We're building out our biological database and functional strain bank to develop microbes for numerous health applications, including strength, recovery, mood, women's health, and more. We live in a bacterial world and we're just scratching the surface of a new frontier to optimize our performance and longevity through our microbiome.

  • FitBiomics logo

    FitBiomics

    Gut Fit Challenge: FITBIOMICS 2-week Beta Test

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  • nature medicine logo

    Nature Medicine

    Meta-omics analysis of elite athletes identifies a performance-enhancing microbe that functions via lactate metabolism

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  • wyss institute logo

    Wyss Institute

    Discovery of performance-enhancing bacteria in the human microbiome

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  • harvard logo

    Harvard

    Harvard’s athlete-based next-generation probiotics technology licensed to FitBiomics

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  • ncbi logo

    National Center for Biotechnology Information

    International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics

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  • bmc logo

    Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition

    The athletic gut microbiota

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