New CHAMP human microbiome profiler outperforms specificity of others on the market, says developer

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Clinical Microbiomics (Copenhagen), a creator of analytical tools for microbiome research, has introduced what it says is microbiome-profiling technology that outperforms other competitors on the market. The company says that its Clinical Microbiomics’ Human Microbiome Profiler 2.0 (CHAMP) offers higher sensitivity compared to other profilers, resulting in fewer false indicators.

Some of the leading microbiome profilers on the market include MetaPhlAn4, Centrifuge, Kraken, and Bracken. According to Clinical Microbiomics, “Compared to MetaPhlAn4, CHAMP exhibited a remarkable 16% increase in sensitivity across various human body sites. Notably, it demonstrated a 400-fold lower false-detection signal, underscoring its unwavering reliability compared to state-of-the-art profilers (MetaPhlAn4, Centrifuge, Kraken, and Bracken).” The company says it performed “rigorous benchmarking experiments” to confirm these differences.

These benefits are important, the company points out, because if researchers developing new probiotics and microbiome-based therapeutics are using profilers sending false signals, researchers could end up following leads on the wrong bacterial candidates and end up investing in costly clinical trials based on erroneous information.

The firm states that CHAMP’s high sensitivity enables it to detect rare species, present in low abundance, in samples, and that it does so with “superior” specificity. Clinical Microbiomics built Champ using its database spanning more than 400,000 metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) collected across nine body sites, including the gut, vagina, skin, and mouth, the firms says.

“With CHAMP, we introduce our next-generation human microbiome profiler,” said Dr. H. Bjørn Nielsen, chief scientific offer at Clinical Microbiomics, in a press release. “It’s based on the world’s largest collection of high-quality human microbiome data, encompasses the full microbial diversity across all body sites, and assures profiling with an unmatched accuracy and incredibly low risk of false signals. Correct profiling is a cornerstone of a sound microbiome study. Without it, conclusions can easily be misguided.”