22 Oct 2020 --- Danone North America and its probiotic brand Activia are funding a “first-of-its-kind investigation” to explore the link between the oral and gut microbiome and the severity of COVID-19. Conducted at Rutgers University, the new microbiome study is part of a series of clinical trials of US healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19 – one of the nation’s largest prospective studies on the topic.