"Microbiome" has become a health and wellness buzzword, implicated as a contributing factor in conditions ranging from diabetes and obesity to gastrointestinal disease, autoimmune diseases and even autism. But the tools scientists use to cultivate bacteria have changed little over the past century, says Peter Christey, founder and CEO of San Carlos, Calif.-based startup General Automation Lab Technologies Inc. (GALT). His firm is hoping to change that with a high-throughput system of hugely parallel arrays and high-resolution images of complex samples that will revolutionize the way microbiology laboratories process genetic material.