This is interesting because uBiome was at the time described (NYT, blogs, etc.) as a way for citizen-scientists to contribute to the scientific process, submit

This is interesting because uBiome was at the time described (NYT, blogs, etc.) as a way for citizen-scientists to contribute to the scientific process, submit your poop, contribute to science. Pre-emptively, yes there are (very) many problems with the scientific process as it currently happens, but this is a relativley new class of things "citizen science + private industry" that is definitely going to take some time to smooth out. In part the scientific community is likely somewhat ignorant as to the promises of the startup culture, and I suspect they will definitely become more cautious promoting these types of collaborations as time goes on.