These innovative, early-stage companies will showcase their novel approaches to microbiome science, product development and health at the upcoming Probiota Americas, taking place June 8 to 10, 2026 at Westin Bayshore in Vancouver.
Now in its 11th year, the annual conference brings together stakeholders from across the microbiome ecosystem—including industry leaders, researchers, investors and regulatory experts—for three days of insights, networking and collaboration.
The Probiota Pioneers platform offers a glimpse into where the sector is headed, spotlighting emerging technologies, science and business models poised to shape the next generation of microbiome innovation.
ClostraBio
ClostraBio, which spun out of research conducted at the University of Chicago, was founded to commercialize microbes and their metabolites identified as essential for intestinal barrier integrity and food tolerance. The company launched its flagship products CLB101, an Anaerostipes caccae strain found to deliver significant doses of butyrate efficiently to the intestinal epithelial cells in preclinical research.
While butyrate has a well-established role in feeding colonocytes, increasing tight junction formation, upregulating host mucus production and modulating immune responses, ClostraBio notes that a lack of viable delivery options has hampered the ability to increase butyrate in populations with food allergies, IBD, IBS, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome.
CLB101 received self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) in June 2025, recently announced a global distribution partnership with Maypro and has a human clinical trial underway to further evaluate the safety and tolerability of CLB101 and its effects on gut health and intestinal barrier integrity.
Holobiome
Founded by scientists from Northeastern University, Boston-based biotechnology company Holobiome is working to decipher the complexity of the human gut microbiome, mapping how bacteria, biology and diet interface to develop precision microbiome-based therapeutics.
The model is built with data derived from the company’s Human Microbiome Vault, a human gut bacterial genome collection over 2,000,000 genomes, and real-world, multi-omic human datasets from over 80,000 people and counting to discover what the company describes as “superhero microbes”. The company is initially focused on the gut-brain-axis as it screens this strain collection for activity against pathways involved in human health.
Its lead program is a next-generation probiotic for depression, with active programs in pain, stress and metabolic health.
Kioga
Kioga is pioneering the “Old Friends” postbiotic category to restore beneficial, soil-derived microbes largely lost in modern industrialized lifestyles to target inflammation and improve stress resilience.
Its approach represents a shift from symptom management toward addressing root neuro-immune imbalance, focusing on microbial signals that recalibrate immune-brain communication rather than simply altering gut composition.
Kioga’s lead ingredient NeuroAlly is built on a Mycolicibacterium petrae KGA-10 strain developed from over 20 years of academic research led by Professor Christopher Lowry at the University of Colorado Boulder. Unlike conventional probiotics that rely on colonization or CFU counts, Kioga explains that NeuroAlly delivers defined immunoregulatory signals that influence microglial priming, regulatory T cell pathways and serotonin-associated circuitry involved in stress resilience and cognitive health.
Preclinical work across multiple models has shown effects on stress resilience, fear extinction, sleep quality, neuroinflammation and cognitive protection in aging paradigms, and a clinical trial in healthy adults reported improvements in biomarkers and validated stress and mental well-being measures. Kioga’s wider discovery and development platform is built around other “Old Friends” organisms, supported by a proprietary strain library and bioactive screening approach.
Probiota Americas 2026
Registration is open for the three-day event, which will take place June 8 to 10, 2026 at The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver.
Sessions, discussions and roundtables will explore a wide range of topics including the state of the market and regulatory landscape, gut microbes and environmental pollutants, the metabolic health opportunity, companion animals, longevity and healthspan, phages and the virome, weight management, prebiotics and women's health.
To learn more and register for the event, visit the Probiota Americas site.
