Understanding which microbial strains successfully establish themselves – engraft - in a host microbiome is a central question in microbiome science. Engraftment analysis is crucial for evaluating interventions such as probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and live biotherapeutic products. Yet, tracking individual strains with high precision remains a technical challenge, especially when strains are nearly identical at the genetic level. With the launch of the second generation of our strain-level profiler, strainQ^TM, we compare available methods and showcase how our solution can bring value to your study.

In this webinar, we will explore:

• What is engraftment? Learn how engraftment is defined in the context of microbiome interventions, why it matters for clinical outcomes, and how it can inform the design and evaluation of microbial therapeutics.
  
  
• Why strain-level matters: Discover the limitations of genus- or species-level analysis and why distinguishing between closely related strains is essential for understanding microbial dynamics, persistence, and function.
  
  
• Technical challenges in strain tracking: Delve into the complexities of resolving strains that differ by only a handful of SNPs, and the pitfalls of traditional methods like 16S rRNA sequencing or marker gene profiling.
  
  
• Advances in metagenomic strain tracking: See how recent computational methods leverage whole-genome sequencing and high-resolution analytics to robustly detect, quantify, and track strains across timepoints and hosts.
  
  
• Applications and case studies: Review examples of how precise engraftment analysis has advanced our understanding of FMT success, probiotic persistence, and the development of new live biotherapeutics. 

Who Should Attend:

Researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals interested in microbiome science, microbial therapeutics, and advanced bioinformatics.

Join us to deepen your understanding of engraftment, learn about the latest technical advances in strain-level tracking, and discuss how these insights are shaping the future of microbiome research.

Speaker:

Gustav Linved (MSc Bioinformatics) - Senior Scientific Product Manager