Micro-organisms in your pills up next: scientist

[SINGAPORE] The hottest thing in the already-hot biotechnology sector are tiny bugs, so investors should pay attention to the commercialisation of health supplements containing micro-organisms, an American biotech entrepreneur has said.

Stephen Turner, who founded Nasdaq-listed gene sequencing equipment maker Pacific Biosciences, said discoveries are coming thick and fast on the microbiome, that community of bacteria and other micro-organisms residing in the human gut, skin and eyes.

A microbiome supplement, for example, could be invented to aid oral health, working through the introduction of a specific form of bacteria to kick out other disease-causing bacteria.