"Knomix" will cure the microflora
A Russian company is creating a unique microbiota analysis system
A grant from the Skolkovo Foundation in the amount of 30 million rubles will be used to develop the world's first electronic system for analyzing the human gut microbiota. The creation of the system at the junction of medicine and big data will be handled by the resident of the Foundation company "Knomix", which entered the biomedical holding "Atlas".
The unique system will include a database of bacterial populations that determine the metabolism of many nutrients and vitamins, form immunity and resist diseases, and directly an algorithm for data analysis. Doctors are interested in the tool being developed: the system will allow to more accurately determine the development of various diseases, as well as business – integrated information about human bacteria and their impact on the body is necessary to develop effective solutions primarily in the pharmaceutical and food industries. The system will allow you to create more targeted medicines, as well as food products that support the microbiota.
Microbiota research technologies are developing most actively in Europe and the USA, where government programs are being implemented, as well as private companies are emerging that offer such analyses to doctors and patients. For example, at the end of 2016, the uBiome project, offering personal testing of the gut microbiota, received a Round B investment of $15.5 million.
However, according to Kirill Kaem, Vice President, executive director of the cluster of biological and medical technologies of the Skolkovo Foundation, today there are no solutions on the global biomedical market that would allow collecting and analyzing in one place all the information about microbiota research, so that at the output of this extensive data could be used by everyone - from patients and doctors before business.
Dmitry Alekseev, CEO of the company "Knomix" and Director of R&D of the biomedical holding "Atlas" emphasizes that it is possible to prevent complex diseases and their consequences by changing the diet based on the results of the analysis of bacteria in the intestine. "This is probably the simplest, but at the same time an effective way to influence health," Dmitry Alekseev believes.
"The team's product at the junction of big data and biomedicine will be in great demand both in Russia and around the world. The potential volume of the Russian market alone in the future 5-7 years is several billion rubles. The importance of developments in this area is emphasized by the inclusion of a whole section on microbiota issues in the draft Federal Law "On Biological Safety of the Russian Federation"," Kirill Kaem comments on the potential of the team.
Founded in 2014, the company "Knomix" became the first project in Russia to study the intestinal microbiota. Microbiologists and bioinformatics scientists of the company were able to determine which microbiota configurations are optimal for Russians, and how to influence bacteria to achieve balance. Knomix became the first company to assemble an expert team to create a service that combines data obtained about the microbiota during thousands of tests, its impact on the body and the development of diseases, as well as linking them to nutrition and health.
By 2018, the company's team will develop a working prototype of the system, including blocks for data collection, storage and analysis, as well as the cloud service itself and an algorithm for calculating possible therapeutic effects. It is planned that the system will constantly update information on the latest studies of bacterial populations in the intestines of people around the world. Analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing data, which determines the bacterial composition of the intestine, will provide information about the effects of drugs and nutrition on the microbiota, which will prevent the development of diseases simply by changing the diet.
In addition, the company will have to test the system with the participation of at least 200 patients. Knomix has already successfully conducted such a study together with Atlas biomedical Holding as part of Russia's first crowdfunding project for personalized human microbiome research. Then about 300 people took part in it.
The developers plan to provide access to the system for users around the world within a year.
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26.01.2017