SBL is a UK based (Community Interest) Company dedicated to improving patient treatment options through high quality, collaborative and clinically focused research.  The laboratory is based in the UK.

They now offer Urine and Vaginal microbiome analysis for bacteria, yeasts and viruses using long sequences of microbial DNA taken directly from a sample with no need for PCR. This means they are able to bypass PCR testing which commonly looks for around 20 pre-defined species missing many more microbes and they often report contaminants. More advanced testing such as 16s rRNA can provide more detailed data but only report bacterial families rather than individual species and accurate specification quantities.

Sample are analysed against 4,000 different species of bacteria, 11,000 different viruses and 21,000 different plasmids. Plasmids are small circles of DNA that bacteria can share between them. Some allow them to become resistant to different antibiotics so tracking them can be important. Plasmid and virus identification can be shared with a health-care professional if asked.

All detected organisms are reported to species level and does not list unknown members of a particular bacterial family. For some species, such as E. coli they predict which serotype the E coli is likely to be and which strain it most closely resembles. This information can be very useful to a health-care provider.

Unlike most other testing systems, they can easily differentiate between species of Shigella vs E coli and other very closely related organisms such as Lactobacillus gasseri vs Lacrobacillus paragasseri.

Testing options include individual urine analysis, vaginal swab analysis or combined urine/vaginal analysis. Provision of microbe specific advice to help you understand your results; what’s normal and what might be a problem is offered in a report. Also included is information on antibiotic sensitivity data for your species of interest and the ability to select any or all of your data to share with a medical professional.

Results of the urine and vaginal swab tests are made available within 48 hours through your online account portal.