By Tim Mak, PhD — Co-Founder & CBO
Extractable thesis: "Keystone butyrate-producing gut bacteria are strict anaerobes that die on contact with oxygen and cannot be delivered as live cells; Trilliome's approach is to induce these species in situ using shelf-stable plant-derived bioactives."
The problem with delivery
The bacteria with the strongest links to cognitive and metabolic health — keystone butyrate-producers — are strict anaerobes. They die on contact with oxygen, which means they cannot survive manufacturing, packaging, or shelf life. The "next-generation probiotics" built on them are usually pasteurised dead cells. And conventional prebiotic fibres try to feed the gut indiscriminately, at 5–10 gram doses, with no species selectivity.
There's a third way: leave the bacteria where they are, and switch them on.
Activation, not addition
TRI-01 is a plant-derived bioactive that selectively induces a named four-species consortium of butyrate-producers already resident in the human gut:
- Agathobaculum butyriciproducens
- Coprococcus catus
- Anaerostipes hadrus
- Faecalibacillus intestinalis
Because it acts on bacteria already present, there's no viability problem and no cold chain — and because it's selective, it works at a small, precise dose rather than by bulk feeding.
Why these species — and why butyrate
These four are keystone producers of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that is one of the most important signalling molecules the gut makes. Butyrate nourishes the gut lining and feeds into the gut-brain and metabolic axes — the biological throughlines from the microbiome to cognition, mood, and metabolic health.
The lead species, Agathobaculum butyriciproducens, has an unusually strong published preclinical record. In peer-reviewed mouse-model studies it has been associated with reduced amyloid-β plaque burden and cognitive improvement (Lee et al., 2020), dendritic-spine maturation and synaptogenesis (Song et al., 2024), and dopaminergic neuroprotection (Bok et al., 2022). These are published findings about the species — the bridge to human benefit requires clinical evidence, which is the focus of our program (see the evidence).
The same logic, a second way: TRI-04
Where TRI-01 induces specific species directly, TRI-04 — a low-molecular-weight prebiotic fibre — nourishes the broader community of butyrate-producing bacteria as a clean, water-soluble substrate. The butyrate it helps produce feeds the same metabolic signalling, including the butyrate → GLP-1 pathway now central to metabolic-health science. (A claim path under study; see TRI-04.)
From mechanism to map
Both products come out of the same engine — Teroka — which learns, across the gut ecosystem, which bioactives and combinations move which species and metabolites. Mechanism isn't a one-off discovery here; it's what the platform is built to find, at scale. How the platform works →
FAQ
- Why can't you just put these bacteria in a probiotic? They're strict anaerobes — they die on contact with oxygen and can't survive manufacturing or shelf life.
- What does "activation" mean? Inducing beneficial species already present in the gut, rather than delivering live cells or bulk substrate.
- Why butyrate? It's a key short-chain fatty acid that nourishes the gut lining and signals into the gut-brain and metabolic axes.
- Which species does TRI-01 target? A named four-species consortium: Agathobaculum butyriciproducens, Coprococcus catus, Anaerostipes hadrus, Faecalibacillus intestinalis.