Confident care with clinical-grade microbiome testing

Microba follows all applicable notifiable disease reporting requirements for the jurisdictions we operate in. In the UK, if a notifiable organism is detected, we notify the UK Health Security Agency and contact the local Health Protection Team as required. The ordering practitioner is also informed directly.

If you have questions about reporting obligations specific to your region, our laboratory team can help.

Unfortunately, we're unable to accept samples from the USA due to differing regulatory requirements. Under US regulations, laboratory-developed tests like ours are subject to oversight by the Food and Drug Administration, and the compliance requirements mean we're not currently in a position to offer the service to US-based clients.

Microbiome Explorer is available in New Zealand, but with limited access — only the Essentials test is offered. Extended and Comprehensive aren't available in NZ at this stage.

To access the test, you can work with an Australian healthcare practitioner for a referral, or House of Health in Auckland also stocks our kits. We know it's important for people in New Zealand to have access to testing, so this is something we keep under review.

No — Insight samples can no longer be processed. We know some customers still have kits on hand, but as we communicated to all customers, we're no longer able to accept Insight samples. If you'd like advice on our current testing options, do reach out and we'll guide you through them.

Yes — kits should be used before their printed expiry date, and we recommend returning them within a year of receiving them. While kits are stable for an extended period, using them within their expiry ensures the reagents and preservatives remain effective and the collected sample stays stable until testing.

Microbiome Explorer Essentials is a comprehensive gut microbiome profile for overall gut health. It uses advanced metagenomic analysis to assess over 28,000 microbial species, including bacteria, fungi, and protists.

Microbiome Explorer Extended builds on the Essentials test with added clinical insight. It combines full microbiome profiling with TGA and CE-certified gastrointestinal markers — faecal occult blood, lactoferrin, calprotectin, secretory IgA, pancreatic elastase, and zonulin family peptides.

Microbiome Explorer Comprehensive is our most advanced test. It includes everything in Microbiome Explorer Extended, plus TGA and CE-certified pathogen and parasite detection panels — giving you the deepest possible look into gut health, microbiome activity, inflammation, and infection.

MetaPanel is an in-house diagnostic stool test offered through Sonic Healthcare in Australia. It uses Microba's metagenomics platform and reports on 175 GI targets — including pathogens, virulence factors, and antibiotic resistance genes. Results are reviewed by a pathologist, who also provides treatment recommendations.

Yes — all three product types are now available for purchase in the UK: Microbiome Explorer Essentials, Extended, and Comprehensive.

Microbiome Explorer doesn't directly test for H. pylori, though here's how it works in practice.

H. pylori will only show up if it's present at over 0.01% relative abundance. If a patient has an infection but it doesn't appear, it may be because the DNA has degraded and isn't detectable in stool. And because H. pylori mostly lives in the stomach lining — and we test the microbiome of the lower large intestine — it's uncommon to detect it in stool.

That said, if it is there in higher abundance, our metagenomics technology will typically find it. The gold standard for detection remains the Helicobacter breath test.

No — Microbiome Explorer doesn't test for SIBO, and we know that can be frustrating because SIBO is difficult to diagnose.

Here's why. SIBO means there are excessive — often gas-producing — colonic microbes in the small intestine. Microbiome Explorer looks at microbes in the distal colon, and we can't assume the microbes there are also present in the small intestine. The two environments are different.

If SIBO is suspected, patients should be referred for further testing. It's worth noting that there's currently no validated gold standard for SIBO testing across the field.

The Microbiome Explorer range is currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom.

In Australia, all three tests are available to practitioners — Essentials, Extended, and Comprehensive. In the UK, only the Comprehensive test is available, and it can be ordered by UK-based practitioners for UK clients.

For international referrals, you can refer the Essentials test to overseas clients from your practitioner portal. The Essentials swab doesn't contain a live sample and remains stable for up to six weeks at room temperature, so these kits can be shipped internationally and returned to our lab without issue. That makes Essentials the only suitable option for Australian practitioners referring clients outside Australia, including to the UK.

We know people around the world are interested in our services. At this stage, access is limited to patients within Australia and the UK, and testing must be organised through a qualified healthcare professional.

There are three levels of Microbiome Explorer testing, plus the MetaPanel test.

Microbiome Explorer Essentials gives you a comprehensive gut microbiome profile, assessing over 28,000 microbial species — bacteria, fungi, and protists.

Microbiome Explorer Extended includes everything in Essentials, plus TGA and CE-certified gastrointestinal markers — faecal occult blood, lactoferrin, calprotectin, secretory IgA, pancreatic elastase, and zonulin family peptides.

Microbiome Explorer Comprehensive is the most advanced option. It includes all the GI markers plus TGA and CE-certified pathogen and parasite detection panels, for a deep dive into gut health, functional microbiome activity, inflammation, and infectious organisms.

MetaPanel is a separate in-house diagnostic test available through Sonic Healthcare in Australia. It reports on 175 GI targets — including pathogens, virulence factors, and antibiotic resistance genes — with results reviewed by a pathologist.

There are plans to expand into other areas in future. We recognise the great potential of NGS technology beyond stool microbiome testing, and you'll be the first to know of any changes to the test portfolio as they're introduced.

Microbiome Explorer Comprehensive is currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. In both regions, our services are accessed through qualified healthcare professionals.

We're expecting Microbiome Explorer to be available in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during 2026.

Microbiome Explorer is built on established metagenomic next-generation sequencing technology — sometimes called mNGS — which has been used in microbiome research for over a decade.

Microba has been conducting microbiome research and analysis since 2017, and Microbiome Explorer Comprehensive launched commercially in Australia in 2023. The platform draws on Microba's in-house reference database — one of the most comprehensive available — developed and validated through peer-reviewed research.

Our science team has published extensively in the microbiome field, and the technology underpinning Microbiome Explorer continues to be refined through ongoing research.

Yes — the Microba lab in Australia that processes samples is fully accredited. It's NATA accredited for Human Pathology under ISO 15189. That accreditation confirms our services consistently meet strict international standards, so you and your patients can feel confident the results are reliable and high quality.

In the UK, healthcare providers are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, or CQC. In Australia, Microba's laboratory is accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities, or NATA. Both meet the international standard ISO 15189, which is recognised globally.

What this means in practice is that our lab undergoes rigorous assessment of technical competence, quality systems, and compliance with international standards. Results are reliable, reproducible, and clinically robust. Even though our testing is conducted outside the UK, it meets the same benchmark as UK laboratories.

Invivo is now part of Microba. We've combined Invivo's strengths in clinical practice and market presence with Microba's world-leading microbiome science and technology, bringing together the expertise to improve human health through microbiome science.

Microbiome Explorer — formerly known as MetaXplore — was launched in Australia in April 2023. It uses cutting-edge NGS technology and saw quick adoption in Australia, with strong positive feedback from practitioners about the test's comprehensive nature and the value of its clinical insights. It was introduced to the UK from October 2024 through what was known as the MetaXplore Pioneer Program.

Microba is collaborating with US partners on test delivery. Currently, we're working with Genova in the US, who launched Microbiomix — a legacy insight product. We've also worked with Psomagen and Luminary on similar implementations.

We're bringing all our microbiome testing under one clear name: Microba. The MetaXplore tests will appear under new names, and Microba becomes the dedicated home for clinical-grade microbiome testing. Invivo will continue to focus on microbiome-nurturing supplements.

The reason for this change is simple — a unified brand makes for a more consistent, world-class testing experience across all regions, simpler ordering, and lets us invest in innovation under one trusted name.

For your patients, the testing is exactly the same. The science, the accuracy, the sample collection, the turnaround times — none of that changes. What does change is the look of the reports and the patient-facing experience, which have been refreshed for clarity and simplicity.

Patients will be notified of the change directly, but you can reassure them it's the same science and quality, simply presented under one clear name. Existing MetaXplore reports and patient data remain accessible in the current platform — nothing is lost. And there's nothing you need to do differently before launch. Continue referring and ordering as usual, and the updated names and branding will appear automatically.