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\u201cWhen I started ZBiotics<\/a>, I was sure somebody would beat us to the punch,\u201d says Dr. Zack Abbott, the microbiologist behind a genetically engineered probiotic serving as a hangover remedy<\/a> that many consumers now swear by.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when we launched three years later, we were the first to market with a genetically engineered probiotic [ZBiotics Pre-alcohol<\/a>: a shot containing bacteria engineered to expresses an enzyme that breaks down a toxic byproduct of alcohol in the gut].<\/p>\n \u201cFive years later, we launched our second product [ZBiotics Sugar-to-Fiber:<\/a> which contains containing bacteria engineered to express an enzyme that converts sugars into fibers in the gut] and still nobody else had launched a GM probiotic. I\u2019m not totally sure why, I think maybe there\u2019s a fear that consumers will reject it, but we just haven\u2019t seen that.<\/p>\n \u201cConsumers want products that deliver tangible benefits\u2026 and that\u2019s what we give them, so I have a feeling that this approach is going to become more and more popular.\u201d<\/p>\n AgFunderNews<\/em> (AFN<\/em>) caught up with Abbott (ZA) at the SynBioBeta<\/a> event in San Jose to talk about his first two \u201cproudly GMO\u201d products, why ZBiotics is making the protein factory rather than the protein itself, and what\u2019s next in the field of designer probiotics.<\/p>\n