OpenBiome Receives Grant from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation

Funding from the Kellen Foundation triples OpenBiome’s pro bono fund and provides funding for capsule research

MEDFORD, Mass – The Kellen Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation based in New York. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the U.S., the Kellen Foundation supports programs and organizations across the arts, higher education, and health care research, including the Cancer Research Institute and the Physician-Scientist Career Development Program at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

OpenBiome is a nonprofit stool bank dedicated to expanding safe access to fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and catalyzing research in the human microbiome. Founded by a team of microbiologists and public health advocates at MIT, OpenBiome has facilitated more than 4,000 fecal transplants across 300 hospitals in 46 U.S. states and 5 countries.

Fecal microbiota transplantation is procedure in which a stool preparation from a healthy human donor is infused into the colon of a patient with recurrent Clostridium difficile (rCDI), one of the most common hospital-acquired infections in the U.S. It is typically delivered via colonoscopy, enema, or a tube inserted through the nose into the stomach or intestines.

This grant funds additional research for OpenBiome’s newly-developed, scalable encapsulated fecal material. The FMT Capsule G3 pills will serve as an alternative delivery method for patients looking to avoid the more invasive treatment options.

Lastly, the Kellen Foundation’s grant will support the fund that OpenBiome maintains to provide FMT treatments free-of-charge for patients in financial need. OpenBiome provides its treatments at-cost, but also strives to ensure that every patient has access to this treatment regardless of financial circumstances. By providing OpenBiome with funds to not only maintain but expand this program, the Kellen Foundation’s donation ensures that patients in need of FMT material will not be prohibited by cost.

To request more information on OpenBiome’s pro-bono fund, please contact OpenBiome’s clinical outreach team at info@openbiome.org, or call 617-575-2201, ext. 3.

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