PROTEBA-A data driven computational biology platform for precision nutrition

Abstract

In the present business & consumer context, data is the king & this applies to every sector including healthcare. Over the last few decades with full scale access of research & technology available to our healthcare practitioners, the healthcare delivery & diagnostic data has taken leaps & bounds to get a picture of post mortem of biological processes.?

These data sets collected to the tune of 10^24 gives a summarized view of imbalance in an individual’s biology. However, these data points have multiple gaps given the onslaught of chronic diseases & cancer:

-These data points lack study of molecules that explains the mechanism of tens of thousands of biological processes inside the body.

-The data points just give an indication of some imbalances but do not tell where these imbalances stem from. For instance, we may measure our Hba1c levels or blood sugar levels using CGM but unless we can measure specific molecular signals that activates GLUT 4 that goes to cell membrane & clears glucose from circulation, such tracking of Hba1c levels or CGM driven blood sugar levels is of no use.

-There are huge structural & functional issues in diagnostic test investigation. A biological sample right from the time it is taken to the time it is processed, passes through 140 steps. Deviation in any of the steps could result in distorted results. This variability is as high as 30% with no two diagnostic investigation labs delving out the same results. Since the healthcare practitioners engineer their interventions based on these test results, there is a higher probability that the intervention may not have any impact or result in impact detrimental to our health.

-These data points fail to elucidate the downstream functions of human microbiome & human host- microbiome interactions.

In order to truly understand the origin & progression of diseases requires collecting ,processing & analyzing entirely different data sets which have not been done yet. The focus has to be on the molecular data sets.?

Human body is a sack of chemicals & chemical reactions. These chemical reactions should work in synchrony to keep our body in homeostasis. These chemical reactions are the outcome of expression of genes that activates, downregulates or upregulates certain proteins. These gene expressions are not about static DNA but external stimulus that drives the biological story. It is this external stimulus that translates genes sequencing into proteins ( as mentioned above) which drives actions or functions inside the body. Yes, 99% of these gene expressions are microbial. This means that?over the last few decades our focus has been on the wrong data sets.

The article deep dives into how Genefitletics, which started to find solution to problems faced by parents of? founders- Sushant Kumar & Sakshi Bali while dealing with type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease & colon cancer, is collecting this huge mammoth molecular data sets to predict & prevent disease from happening & bring breakthrough discoveries in human microbial science to restore human health.?

?Genefiletics- A revolution which healthcare sector has been waiting for?

We were born with a mission “ To place chronic diseases as a chapter in history books, not in lives of current & future generations”

The starting point was to address the biggest gap- 99% of biology which has not been studied- the human microbiome. When it comes to studying microbiomes, the best bet is to study the microbial population having permanent settlement in Gut but the bugs living in other parts of the body such as mouth, skin, vagina & more are equally important. However to characterise human host- microbiome interactions, we really need to ask entirely different questions from what the world is asking.?

While we have seen number of microbiome companies just studying the presence of microbes( alpha/beta diversity) & marketing them as tests, to truly understand the disease origin & move from correlation to causation, the focus should be on understanding the downstream functions of microbiome & how these functions directly impact our immune response, mitochondrial response & influence how our human genes react to it.?

As such the use of the word “TEST” leaves huge gaps since the technology to sequence microbiomes just gives raw molecular data. To decode & decipher these data sets, there is a need for an entirely different tech piece as a test does not tell anything.?

This is where we at Genefitletics are driving the precision health revolution from the front. Since beginning, we have been in the business of bringing the scientific breakthrough in human microbiome science & accelerating the speed of the application of this science & machine learning to bridge the gap between scientific discoveries & human health.

Our starting point was never static DNA &/or microbial diversity but gene expression & downstream biochemical functions of the human microbiome. We have built, commercialized & monetised proprietary Asia’s first & only computational biology platform -PROTEBA.?

Unlike other commercial microbiome tests that just focuses on existing of microbes & manual nutritionist driven interventions, our platform PROTEBA is completely data driven & work at the congruence of next generation genes expression sequencing tech, cloud computing( advanced bioinformatics) & machine learning to collect, process & analyze molecules secreted as a result of microbial genes expression to not only predict disease onset but also construct most precise disease modifying interventions to bring body back into homeostasis.?

Unraveling your molecular storyline & modifying your biological story from a disease developing to health state

“Our platform boasts of collecting India’s first mammoth molecular database(~ 5 million plus molecular data per sample/individual) + phenotype & longitudinal data & developing big data architecture capable of measuring, quantifying & delivering unprecedented molecular insights & biochemical pathways( unidentifiable by conventional diagnostic tests) to consumers & healthcare practitioners in order to prevent the disease from happening, stop its progression or regulate the biology for those who are in advanced /late stage of disease”- Sushant Kumar, Founder & CEO-Genefitletics

Decoding your biological storyline involves three different complex steps & data mining operations which is well supported by our proprietary big data infrastructure:?

From Data Collection to insights

1. Our starting point is your biological sample ( stool, saliva) which contains billions of molecules secreted by your microbiome. We focus on informative, 2% of these molecules which translates into 5 million + molecules.? Each of these 5 million molecules are sequenced to transform this raw material into digital information. This digital information represents all microbes living in gut or mouth & genes expressed by those microbes?
2. This digital information is processed through our proprietary bioinformatics that not only tells which microbe this molecule came from but also which genes it came from & which functions are coded by that gene. In order words, we have microbial gene expression data sets that explain various molecular features & correspond to various biological functions including metabolic, immune, inflammatory & more.
3. We also collect phenotypic,longitudinal & clinical efficacy data through scientifically designed questionnaires?
4. Using our suite of advanced human biology algorithms, these microbial & gene expression data sets along with phenotypic data are combined mathematically to identify, measure & quantify(score) 50 plus biochemical pathways,giving unique molecular insights for each individual. These pathways give a complete picture of human host- microbial interactions & reflect the small molecules( metabolites) being secreted.?
5. Since each of these scores are associated with a specific biological function, we can determine causation relationship with specific areas of health such as metabolic health, cardiovascular health , oral health & more
6. By combining these pathways & fueling our platform with molecular data/biochemical pathways of every new customer & re-sign up, we have gone one step further and built human biology models that could predict disease onset for 9 diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, autism & more. These disease signatures are part of standard analysis which is available to each patient who signs up for our gut or oral microbiome program.
7. We have also built predictive insulin responses to 300 plus foods that can help patients predict glycemic response to various goods, obviating the need for CGM.

“We are building India’s largest molecular, phenotype & longitudinal data around gut & oral microbial genes expression ( 1 Bn molecular + longitudinal data sets & counting)”- Sakshi Bali-Co-founder & CTO-Genefitletics

From insights to interventions?

1. Our Platform is home to the world’s largest food ontology database, capturing 30,000 plus food molecules/substrates?
2. The functional activity level of each of the pathways/molecular insights are married with the food ontology database mathematically to compute, engineer & construct precision nutrition, supplement & prebiotic & probiotics interventions.
3. These interventions, which are based on food substrates- pathways interactions, are meant to suppress proinflammatory activities while stimulating anti-inflammatory & beneficial activities to rebalance your unique biology
4. We also collect longitudinal & clinical efficacy data at intervals of 1 month & 4 months that capture the impact of these interventions on your biology & accordingly our platform updates the interventions to reflect the real time stage of biology at molecular level.
5. This is India’s first computational biology available to consumers/patients at scale. The consumer/patient gets access to the platform which reflects his/her unique biochemical functions at molecular level & associated disease modifying interventions on a 6 monthly subscription model.
6. We have also built a computational biology platform for healthcare practitioners- BIACCESS which gives them access to asymptomatic & hard to detect disease signals, which cannot be identified by conventional diagnostic tests, enabling them to align their interventions with an individual’s biochemical individuality.
7. Consumers/Patients have direct access to Industry’s first personalized nutrition tableau that empowers them to plan their meal in advance every week for next 7 days based on interventions carved out for them based on their unique biology, obviating the need for nutritionists for their meal planning.
8. Through clinical efficacy forms, consumers/patients can anytime evaluate the efficacy of their recommendations. This data further feeds our platform which helps us to further fine tune our algorithms.

Additional Benefits

1. Now doctors/healthcare practitioners can become our? partner in this journey & get access to unique molecular insights of their patients which can never be identified by diagnostic tests & /or CGM.
2. Probiotics & supplement companies can also collaborate with us to transit from OTC /standard recommendations to precision supplement/probiotic solutions by getting a complete digital footprint of their consumers.

With collection & analysis of these growing mammoth molecular, microbial , phenotype, longitudinal & clinical efficacy data sets through our computational biology platform-PROTEBA, we could standardize microbial science methods which is non existent right now, fill in the gaps faced by current healthcare practices which was based on shallow healthcare delivery data sets & give clear early disease/pre-disease signals which was not possible earlier.

We are addressing a growing area of science, research & commercial applications wherein collecting & mining of these huge Indian specific molecular & phenotypic data sets are empowering us to build & drive consumer health innovations such as predictive, preventative ,diagnostic, therapeutics( including live biotherapeutics) tools to prevent some of growing health conditions such as autoimmune disorders, autism, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer & more leveraging human microbiome as a fulcrum.

For information, visit here : www.genefitletics.com or reach out to us at [email protected]