The gut microbiome in autism.
A research study your family can take part in — at no cost.
We are studying how a child’s own gut microbiome relates to autism, and whether a precision, microbiome-targeted intervention can shift it — building on our prior ASD research. Participation is voluntary and free.
Every child on the spectrum is different — and so is their gut. In our prior ASD research, children with autism showed distinct, measurable microbiome signatures that set them apart from their neurotypical peers. This study takes the next step: we read your child’s unique gut signature, place them into their specific subtype, and design an intervention aimed precisely at what we find. It costs nothing to enter — you would only choose to purchase the intervention if it proves successful for your child.
What participation involves
How the study works
Enroll & establish a baseline
After you enroll and complete informed consent, your child completes two simple at-home tests so we can see exactly where they’re starting from.
Stratify & match
Using the validated stratification model from our prior study, we place your child into their microbiome subtype and match them against Strat 0 — the neurotypical baseline — so the intervention targets exactly what differs.
Targeted intervention
Guided by the subtype, we deploy bacteriophages (with our partner) to precisely remove the problematic bacteria we identified, and precision probiotics to rebuild the protective community that was depleted.
Re-test & measure the change
At the end of the program your child repeats the same two tests, so we can measure — objectively — how their gut chemistry and microbiome shifted.
What we found in our ASD research
Autism-associated guts repeatedly showed an overgrowth of problematic bacteria and a loss of protective ones — the imbalance this study sets out to investigate:
These overgrowths feed metabolic pathways whose byproducts are repeatedly linked in the research to GI distress and to mood, anxiety and behavior/sensory symptoms — the urine test measures those byproducts directly, and the stool test maps the bacteria behind them.
What are bacteriophages — and how do they help?
Nature’s precision-guided antibacterial
Bacteriophages (“phages”) are viruses that infect only bacteria — never human cells. Where an antibiotic is a carpet bomb that wipes out good and bad bacteria alike, a phage is a guided strike on one target, leaving the rest of the microbiome intact.
How a phage clears a problematic pathogen:
- Recognize — the phage docks onto a receptor found only on its target bacterium (e.g. toxigenic C. difficile or pathogenic E. coli).
- Inject — it delivers its genetic payload inside that single bacterium.
- Replicate — it turns the bacterium into a factory that makes hundreds of new phages.
- Lyse — the bacterium bursts, releasing phages that seek out the remaining target cells. The problematic population collapses — and only that population.
In this study, phage cocktails are chosen against the specific pathogens your child’s stratification reveals — the same overgrowths driving the problematic pathways we uncovered in our ASD research. Once cleared, our precision probiotics reseed the protective, butyrate-producing bacteria a healthy gut depends on. Subtract the harmful, restore the helpful — precisely.