What Is Synbiotic Health—and Where Did It Come From?
Synbiotic Health is a Nebraska-born microbiome company developing probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic solutions rooted in decades of academic research. At its core, the company is focused on a simple but powerful idea: beneficial microbes only work if you give them the right environment to survive and thrive.
The company emerged from long-running gut microbiome and nutrition research at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), where scientists were studying how specific bacterial strains interact with fermentable fibers, diet, and host biology. Rather than taking a consumer-supplement approach, this work emphasized strain-level discovery, ecological fitness in the gut, and reproducible health outcomes—principles that translate across both human health and agricultural systems.
Synbiotic Health was formed to move that research out of the lab and into real-world applications. In 2019, Tim Brummels joined as co-founder and CEO to lead commercialization, helping transform years of federally funded research and peer-reviewed science into scalable ingredients, partnerships, and products. What makes Synbiotic distinct is not just what it sells, but how it was built: as a translation engine for credible microbiome science.
At a layperson’s level, the gut microbiome can be thought of as an internal ecosystem—trillions of microbes that help digest food, train the immune system, and protect against harmful organisms. Adding bacteria alone often isn’t enough. Synbiotics pair the right microbes with the specific fibers that feed them, improving the odds that those microbes actually persist and deliver benefits. That logic—deeply researched at UNL—is the foundation of Synbiotic Health.
2. Nebraska’s Expertise—and the Founders Behind It
Nebraska is not the largest microbiome cluster in the world, but it occupies a highly specific and necessary niche: the intersection of agriculture, food science, microbiology, and health. Few regions combine crop science, fermentation, animal biology, and human nutrition within a single, tightly connected research ecosystem.
That ecosystem shaped Synbiotic Health’s founding team:
- Dr. Bob Hutkins (UNL, Professor Emeritus)
A pioneer in probiotics and prebiotics, Dr. Hutkins spent decades studying how dietary fibers and beneficial microbes interact in the gut. His work helped establish many of the core scientific principles behind rational synbiotic design. - Dr. Andy Benson (UNL, Professor of Food Science & Technology)
Dr. Benson’s research bridges genomics and microbiome science, focusing on how host genetics and diet shape microbial communities. His background brings computational rigor and systems-level thinking to gut ecology. - Dr. Tom Burkey (UNL, Professor of Animal Science; Associate Dean)
Dr. Burkey studies the links between nutrition, gut microbes, and immune function, particularly in livestock. His work is central to translating microbiome science across animal and human health—a defining Nebraska strength. - Dr. Jens Walter (formerly UNL; now APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork)
An internationally recognized microbiome ecologist, Dr. Walter applies ecological theory to gut microbial communities and synbiotic design. His career underscores Nebraska’s connectivity to global microbiome research networks. - Tim Brummels (Co-founder & CEO)
Brummels brings industry and commercialization experience, guiding Synbiotic from academic discovery toward market-ready solutions and partnerships.
The research underlying Synbiotic Health was supported by federal funding streams typical of nutrition and microbiome science, particularly USDA-aligned research focused on food systems and animal health, alongside health-oriented funding pathways common in microbiome work. Some founders remain active faculty at UNL, reinforcing the ongoing connection between the company and the university.
3. Putting Nebraska—and Synbiotic—In Global Context
The most prominent nutrition and microbiome clusters are well established:
- Boston–Cambridge (Harvard, MIT, Broad Institute) has produced companies like Seres Therapeutics and Vedanta Biosciences, rooted in clinical and pharmaceutical pathways.
- San Francisco Bay Area (Stanford, UCSF) has seen companies such as Pendulum Therapeutics, blending consumer health with clinical science.
- San Diego (UC San Diego) combines microbiome research with biotech infrastructure and precision health initiatives.
- Ireland (APC Microbiome Ireland) has become a global center for food-microbiome research, closely linking academia and industry.
These clusters benefit from scale, capital, and dense clinical networks. Nebraska’s role is different—and complementary. Its advantage lies in originating microbiome innovation from food, fiber, fermentation, and agricultural systems, then extending that science into human health. That perspective is increasingly important as the industry moves beyond pills and toward diet-based, systems-level interventions.
Synbiotic Health is an early example of what can emerge from this overlap. As nutrition, agriculture, and microbiome science continue to converge, Nebraska’s integrated ecosystem is likely to produce more companies operating in this space—small by design, scientifically rigorous by necessity, and globally relevant by impact.
This is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of a new generation of companies built where food systems and human health truly meet.
