Thorne is committed to the safety and efficacy of its supplements and at-home health tests to bring confidence and assurance to our customers. This day-to-day commitment is part of ensuring that our loyal customers are confident that what they buy and use is what we say it is, is the best technology or ingredient, is supplied in efficacious amounts, and is driving positive health outcomes.

This commitment also motivates our internally led clinical trials and allows us to work with world-class external research partners on new formulas, new potential product uses, and new user populations. Worldwide, at any given time, there are approximately 40 ongoing clinical trials using Thorne ingredients, product formulas, and proprietary test kits.

Several of the most influential research studies on Thorne products include:

  • The Thorne Gut Health Test Study (formerly known as Gutbio by Onegevity), published in 2020, showed that our metagenomic-sequenced gut microbiome test and personalized recommendations had efficacious results for individuals needing nutritional and lifestyle support for irritable bowel syndrome.[1] Paired with another study that showed our innovative wipe collection kit has comparable effectiveness to the standard not-as-user-friendly collection kit,[2] the combined research enabled us to develop the revolutionary Thorne Gut Health Test and continues to help refine product recommendations, new formulas, and test scores our customers see now.
  • In late 2021, we finished a study funded by Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) that examined the multi-omic differences (gut microbiome, vaginal microbiome, blood chemistries, and genetics) between women who have and didn’t have PCOS. The early findings impacted the formulation of Thorne’s nutritional supplement, Ovarian Care, designed to support hormonal balance and aspects of reproductive health affected by PCOS.*
  • We conducted a study looking at post-collegiate football players entering the NFL draft and found there are significant blood abnormalities that can alter metabolic pathways if these athletes were to experience a brain injury.[3] This data provided the early insight that made possible the choice of the ingredients used in Thorne’s Vegan Pro Complex® and shaped the blood biomarkers tested in Thorne’s Advanced Health Panel.
  • Researchers at Mayo Clinic recently released pre-peer-reviewed results that show Thorne’s SynaQuell® supplement significantly benefits objective measures of brain function and structure in Junior A ice hockey players from pre- to post-season.*[4]

Thorne also has many ongoing projects that will impact future product releases and provide new testing options, three of which include:

  • The OneDraw® Blood Collection Device is being deployed in the Biden Administration’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative through the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Project for Military Exposures and Toxin History Evaluation in U.S. service members (PROMETHEUS). This project will help determine the connection between early environmental toxic exposures and subsequent health outcomes.
  • Ongoing research and development validation of the OneDraw device with Arome Science to bring to market a blood metabolomics test.
  • Our research team will present data at the American College of Sports Medicine’s 2023 conference from a kavalactone study that researched the effect of kavalactones on a Special Forces group during an intense training program.

This cutting-edge innovation and discovery has prompted us to design the Thorne Research Portal – a new offering for external research partners. The Thorne Research Portal is an online, end-to-end clinical trial management software service that will streamline biological research testing and data access using Thorne’s proprietary testing devices.

Research studies can have complex designs and timelines. Finding HIPAA-compliant and research-grade software to help organize and communicate with subjects, provide electronic consenting and raw data downloads, and order, mail, collect, and analyze quantitative questionnaire data and complex, next-generation biological data all in one system can be expensive for smaller studies and rigid for larger studies. We created the Thorne Research Portal to solve these problems and more, utilizing our at-home health test kits or in-lab blood orders, easy access to data files, and offering subject-friendly reports of personal data back to subjects.

The Thorne Research Portal will support our internal research projects and optimize problem solving for external research partners who want to use our patented gut microbiome test kit with a user-friendly wipe collection – which we have seen improve testing compliance – and the convenient, comfortable OneDraw capillary blood collection device. Our tests offer customizable analyses to fit almost any research study design and desired biomarkers.

Researchers who use the Thorne Research Portal can expect:

  • Kit fulfillment and shipping from Thorne directly to a location or a subject’s home. It includes everything needed for collection: instructions, supplies, and return packaging.
  • A unique study landing page that seamlessly allows subjects to create an account, provide electronic consent, activate kits, complete questionnaires, read study design and intervention instructions, and facilitate subject communication.
  • Transparency to subjects’ status in the study pipeline – when kits were ordered, mailed back, processed, and results received.
  • Customizable analysis of the microbiome – reads, turnaround time, analysis type, and blood (at-home and in-lab), and urine sample biomarkers.
  • Subjects blinded to results until the study is completed and consumer-friendly educational reports with their data on completion.
  • An easy-to-use platform to organize subjects, enabling quick and powerful data analytics.
  • Subjects tracked through study milestones (screening, questionnaires, baseline measures, intervention, post-measures, etc.).
  • Simple raw data download into CSV files for analysis.
  • Ability to post about a clinical trial and its objective on Thorne’s Take 5 Daily blog to support recruitment.
  • Access to Thorne’s Bioinformatics Team for support/analysis.
  • Support from Thorne’s Customer Service team for kit, collection, and account issues.

The Thorne Research Portal will launch Thorne’s research capabilities to the next level. Already, many university, industry, and medical institution partners are utilizing this software service and testing capabilities to facilitate their decentralized, virtual, and in-person clinical trials.

For anyone interested in hosting their institutional review board (IRB)-approved clinical trial on the Thorne Research Portal, reach out to study@thorne.com for more information and a demonstration of the portal and how it can accelerate your research study timeline.

References

  1. Meydan C, Afshinnekoo E, Rickard N, et al. Improved gastrointestinal health for irritable bowel syndrome with metagenome-guided interventions. Prec Clin Med Published online April 29, 2020. doi:10.1093/pcmedi/pbaa013
  2. Hua H, Meydan C, Afshin EE, et al. A wipe-based stool collection and preservation kit for microbiome community profiling. Front Immunol 2022;13:889702.
  3. Kunces LJ, Keenan J, Schmidt CM, Schmidt MA. Molecular deficits relevant to concussion are prevalent in top-ranked football players entering the National Football League Draft. J Strength Cond Res Published online September 16, 2021. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000004131
  4. Breuer LT, Fickling SD, Krause DA, et al. The effects of a dietary supplement on brain function and structure in Junior A ice hockey players: a prospective randomized trial. medRxiv Published online April 3, 2023. doi:10.1101/2023.04.03.23288079