How Bacteria Affect Health: Russia Develops a Service to Analyze the Gut Microbiome
The MyBiom service has completed pilot testing in Novosibirsk. Designed to generate personalized recommendations on improving gut microbiome function, the service has demonstrated stable performance and is now ready for further development.
Russia's medical IT sector continues to develop tools that help people better understand their own bodies. One such project is MyBiom, developed by Novosibirsk-based company MyGenetics, a resident of the Skolkovo Innovation Center and the Akadempark technopark. The solution combines laboratory microbiome test results with software-based data analysis, giving users and their physicians more than just a set of measurements: it provides a clearer picture of the state of the gut microbiota.
From Analysis to Recommendations
Medical professionals say that human health and immune function are directly linked to the condition of the gut, how it works and the state of its microflora. The microbiome is a community of microorganisms living in the digestive system and participating in various processes in the body. Its composition varies from person to person and can change under the influence of factors such as diet and lifestyle.
MyBiom is designed to provide a personalized analysis of how probiotics affect the gut microbiome. The process works as follows: a user submits a biological sample, which is analyzed using a PCR panel covering 31 microorganisms. The service then automatically generates a report. It shows how individual bacteria compare with reference values, assesses the functions of the microbiota and examines their relationship to health.
Based on these results, the system recommends changes to diet, probiotics, dietary supplements and lifestyle. For users, this offers a more structured way to understand their test results and discuss them with a healthcare professional. Physicians, in turn, can access the data in digital form and use it as additional information during consultations.
Three Stages of Validation
Before completing the pilot, the developers evaluated MyBiom in three areas. The first was technical testing. Specialists checked software stability, report generation speed, the accuracy of integration with the platform and performance under heavy workloads. In total, the system processed more than 11,000 requests without a single error.
The second stage involved expert evaluation. Five specialists independently and blindly interpreted the results of 10 PCR tests. Their conclusions were then compared with the service's automatically generated reports. The interpretations and recommendations matched in 79.9% of cases, exceeding the established success threshold of 70%.
Finally, the product underwent user testing. Participants tracked changes in their own well-being after beginning to follow recommendations generated by the neural network based on analysis of their biological samples.
Where Biology Meets IT
MyGenetics has been working in the field of personal genetics since 2013. The company became a resident of the Skolkovo Innovation Center and Novosibirsk's Akadempark, a science and technology hub supporting projects in biotechnology, medicine and software development.
MyBiom's development received support from the Skolkovo Foundation, the National Technology Initiative (NTI) and Russia's Ministry of Science and Higher Education through the HealthNet initiative. For Russia's IT industry, the project is an example of specialized software development at the intersection of laboratory diagnostics and personalized health management.
Future Prospects and Opportunities
In the future, similar Russian-developed technologies could find markets beyond the country. Potential international partners may be interested in software for interpreting laboratory data, digital reports for physicians and tools for tracking health indicators across repeat tests.
For now, the immediate priorities are further development of the service and the accumulation of practical experience. Completing pilot testing marks an important starting point for the project. The Russian team has validated the digital tool and established a foundation for further improving its personalized microbiome recommendations.
