iSWAB Microbiome Collection Kit

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Microbial content and diversity within collected gut, rectal, vaginal, skin, oral, or soil samples can provide a wealth of clues about human and animal health. However, current microbiome collection methods subject the samples to harsh and stressful stabilization techniques such as freezing or harsh organic solvents. Both stabilization approaches have a high probability of altering the microbial representation in the sample, which could lead to misleading results and hinder proper modeling or data analysis.

• Freezing: Requires well-monitored cold chain storage and transport – Cost associated with cold chain transport – Alters microbial representation from point of collection to processing – Limited to DNA analysis – Thawing sample requires pre-processing which affects DNA quality – Somewhat limits re-culturing of samples, therefore affecting proper modeling or data analysis.
• Organic solvents: In addition to being toxic and requires strict regulations for transport and handling procedures, they alter microbial representation from the point of collection to processing – Limited to DNA and somewhat for RNA analysis.

Features

• Non-toxic stabilization; no organic, hazardous solvent fixatives or detergents.
• Microbial presentation maintained intact from time of collection for weeks at room temperature (real time testing ongoing).
• No bloom effect correction needed for microbiome data. Both aerobic and anaerobic bacterial communities stabilized from collection to processing.
• Ambient temperature transport and storage with no cold chain involvement.
• The stabilization buffer efficiently inactivates bacteria, fungi, spores, and viruses allowing safe transport of biological samples.
• Purified bacterial DNA or RNA isolated from collected samples are compatible with qPCR, microarray and NGS based applications.
• Scalable and customizable platform capable of stabilizing up to 20g of fecal or soil material in standard collection containers.