Viome Acquires Sōlaria Biō

Viome, a health company known for its RNA-based microbiome diagnostic testing and personal nutrition recommendations, has acquired Sōlaria Biō, a synbiotic and medical foods company.

Viome’s own data set, which is sourced from over 1 million microbiome samples, will be paired with Sōlaria’s own biobank and discovery platform to accelerate the development of targeted, condition-specific products, the companies said.

Viome has used RNA sequencing to analyze the microbiome since its founding; insights provided to users have improved digestive conditions in 94% of users who re-test themselves after acting on more than 140 different types of nutritional recommendations it provides, the company reported.

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A Medical Food for the Gut-Bone Axis

Sōlaria’s lead product is Bōndia, a synbiotic medical food clinically studied to support bone health. It will be the first Viome product available to consumers without requiring a Viome test. In peer-reviewed, randomized, controlled trials, the product has been shown to reduce femoral bone loss by a rate of 84.5% in women with osteopenia, and reduce hip loss by up to 73.7% in women with elevated BMI or body fat.

In a 12-month intervention, Bōndia showed the clearest effects on bone mineral density (BMD) observed in the femoral neck for people with osteopenia.

“The BMD changes observed in Bōndia are encouraging, but the study was not designed to determine whether they translate into reduced fracture risk,” noted Alicia Eve Ballok, PhD, translational science lead at Viome. “Fracture risk depends on many factors beyond BMD, so a specific clinical benefit in osteopenia patients should not be assumed.” The product should best be considered as a complement to broader lifestyle changes such as weight-bearing and resistance exercise, healthy diet with adequate calcium and vitamin D, and other measures.

Bōndia was also shown in preclinical lab models to strengthen intestinal barrier integrity, reduce inflammatory signaling, and reduce the activity of bone-resorbing osteoclasts.

“Together, these studies support a model in which signals generated in the gut can influence immune activity, and, ultimately, bone remodeling,” said Ballok. “What distinguishes Bōndia [from microbes that have similar individual effects] is the combination of these activities and the depth of evidence connecting them specifically to bone biology, including effects on osteoclast activity and clinical evidence of favorable BMD changes.”

Sōlaria is also developing its second upcoming product, which is formulated for joint health.

Solaria’s Microbial Discovery Engine

“For a decade, Viome has been helping people learn what’s happening inside their bodies because we believe true personalization is the key to improving overall health and longevity,” said Naveen Jain, founder and CEO of Viome. “Now, we’re building platforms that will help us expand to offer interventions people can act on immediately for health challenges they’re already facing.”

“Powered by our vast biological dataset and Sōlaria’s biobank and discovery platform, we plan to raise the standard of efficacy in the supplement space by creating products that meaningfully improve health based on individual needs,” he added.

Bōndia was built on Sōlaria Biō’s discovery platform, which was developed from a decade of analyzing microbial strains found in fruits, vegetables, and fermented foods. The biobank includes more than 5,700 bacterial and fungal isolates, and its machine learning models predict strain function to create targeted medical foods.

This platform, according to the company, can shorten the development of new products from years to months, and will support Viome’s future pipeline of products.

“Sōlaria’s mission has always been to address health concerns at their earliest stages, when targeted nutrition can make the greatest difference,” said Eric Schott, co-founder and COO of Sōlaria Biō. “By combining our plant-derived microbial discovery engine with Viome’s ability to decode the body’s unique biological signals, we can help people recognize emerging health needs sooner and respond with precision. Together, we can offer clinically validated solutions that support people from the first signs of change in their health.”

Pairing its molecular database with access to clinically validated interventions, Viome said it aims to bridge the gap between diagnostics and therapies.

“Viome’s data can point to a need. Sōlaria Biō’s collection and models can point to the strains that may meet it,” said Ballok. Together, we can start from a need we see in the data and find the strains or combinations most likely to address it … Most probiotics on the market come from a narrow range of organisms. Sōlaria Biō’s collection gives us strains beyond those already widely used in commercial probiotics. The models also let us match well-characterized strains to the signatures we see in our data.”

Sōlaria’s models are unique in that they’re trained to predict how strains behave in isolation and in various combinations, allowing researchers to narrow the field early; Bōndia would typically have taken three years to move from idea to clinic, but took 10 months with the help of the model. “For Viome, that means we can investigate more product opportunities and move the most promising ones into clinical evaluation sooner,” Ballok said.

Looking Ahead

The acquisition comes shortly after Viome acquired Circulate Health, a company specializing in therapeutic plasma exchange.

Ballok noted the recent acquisitions align with Viome’s plans to widen its offerings of practical interventions that consumers, alongside their clinicians, can act on.

“Circulate by Viome added physician-guided, clinic-based interventions to a nationwide network of partner clinics,” she said. “Sōlaria Biō adds a discovery and development engine for condition-specific interventions that people can take at home. Over the next several years, we want measurement, intervention, and outcomes to sit in one connected system … Each new diagnostic or product we add plugs into the same loop.”