- Founding team includes biochemistry Nobel Laureates and world-leading AI experts
- Proprietary AI technology transforms untapped microbial genetic data into actionable insights for drug development and usage
- Set to unveil a new generation of personalized medical insight by predicting the efficacy of medicine with remarkable accuracy
, /PRNewswire/ -- Alphabiome, the first company to unlock the microbiome's genetic code with advanced AI, today announces $8M seed funding from AIX Ventures alongside other investors.
Despite its vast biological significance, the current approach to microbiome analysis largely focuses on reference genomes (standardized representations of genomes used by scientists to identify variations between them), which represent around only 1% of microbial diversity. Combining advanced AI and microbiome analytics, Alphabiome's unique, data-driven approach leverages sophisticated novel mathematical models and algorithms to identify previously uncharacterized microbial DNA patterns that are scattered across different chromosomes, microbes, and biological kingdoms. Valuable biomarkers are then extracted to predict drug efficacy with unmatched accuracy, unlocking new possibilities for precision medicine.
The proprietary AI technology was developed by Alphabiome's CEO and founder Dr. Yaniv Altshuler, an MIT researcher and protégé of one of the world's top data scientists MIT Prof. Alex Pentland. Working on AI for over twenty years, Altshuler has published three books, over seventy academic papers and twenty patents in the AI field. Altshuler focused on decentralized and scalable AI methods, which laid the groundwork for Alphabiome. In addition to MIT Prof. Pentland, the company's cross-disciplinary scientific leadership includes Stanford Nobel Laureate Prof. Roger Kornberg, renowned for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of genetics, and Stanford Nobel Laureate Prof. Michael Levitt, who contributed to revolutionizing the field of biochemistry and research into the structural basis of diseases.
"Over the years, Yaniv and I applied mathematics and advanced AI to develop a series of techniques to evaluate the interactions between swarms of insects, and groups of people, namely swarm intelligence and social physics," says Prof. Pentland. "Alphabiome leverages these same techniques to determine the important factors in the complex, multi-organism swarm of entities that is the microbiome. Using this holistic approach enables us to significantly deepen our understanding of, and address illnesses such as Alzheimer's, obesity and depression - it's like Christmas for scientists."
Prof. Kornberg adds, "Alphabiome will have a transformative effect on human health, both normal and diseased. For example, very soon we'll likely be able to address previously untreatable cancers such as Glioblastoma that may well possess unique metabiome signatures that will be indicative of the benefits derived from manipulating the microbiome. Beyond this, the depth of information gathered with respect to the microbiome when combined with medical records on a large scale will undoubtedly result in profound benefits we cannot even contemplate today."
Alphabiome recently conducted a trial where microbiome samples were collected from a large number of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's patients who were being treated with six different drugs. Alphabiome's proprietary algorithm analyzed trillions of genetic data points and identified over 10,000 complex microbe-derived biomarkers related to the successful use of these drugs. The same biomarkers found in the millions of other Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's patients around the world can now empower doctors to accurately prescribe optimal treatment.
"Bypassing traditional hypothesis-driven medical research, our purely data-driven approach applies advanced mathematical models and algorithms to identify new biomarkers at scale. This will enable the medical industry to treat a vast array of chronic and life-threatening diseases much more effectively," says Altshuler. "It's extremely rewarding to be able to apply years of work to create a worthwhile and impactful technology. I feel honored and immensely grateful to be supported by such esteemed leaders across AI, data science, biochemistry and microbiology."
Alphabiome will significantly reduce costs and boost productivity across the healthcare industry by:
- Empowering pharmaceutical companies with faster and more effective drug development
- Enabling doctors and hospitals to predict the efficacy of medicine with remarkable accuracy
- Boosting recovery time and reducing the time hospitalized by patients
- Mitigating costs of ineffective treatment for insurance companies
- Enabling governments to reduce overall spending on health
About Alphabiome
Alphabiome's groundbreaking approach uses a proprietary advanced AI model to decode the secrets of the human microbiome, analyzing trillions of genetic fragments to identify high potential biomarkers at an unprecedented scale. The platform transforms untapped microbial genetic data into actionable insights for drug development, predicting the efficacy of treatments with remarkable accuracy. Alphabiome's seasoned team includes MIT world-leading AI experts and Stanford biochemistry Nobel laureates. For more info, please visit www.alphabiome.ai.
Media Contact:
Diane Mckaye
[email protected]
SOURCE Alphabiome
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