, the company first amplifies a portion of the bacterial gene that encodes 16s ribosomal rna using pcr, then sequences the amplified 16s ribosomal rna gene, in order to categorize the bacteria at the genus level. the company has proprietary machine learning algorithms that analyze the sequence data and compare it with the company's proprietary database of microbiomes, built from the samples that partners and single customers send to them, and web-based software that allows individuals to view their microbiome and make certain comparisons. a 2014 report in "xconomy" said the company outsources the sequencing. the sequencing is done on the illumina nextseq500 sequencer.