ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,714,729, issued on Aug. 25, was assigned to MAAT PHARMA (Lyons, France) and INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONMENT (Paris).

"Method of preparing a faecal microbiota sample" was invented by Herve Affagard (Lyons, France), Carole Schwintner (Lyons, France), Catherine Juste (Le Perray-en-Yvelines, France), Joel Dore (Vitry sur Seine, France), Patricia Lepage (Paris), Christel Maillet (Saclay, France), Sylvie Rabot (Senlisse, France), Fernanda Fonseca (Villepreux, France) and Herve Blottiere (Nantes, France).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to a method for preparing a feca...