Predica Diagnostics and TenWise announce collaboration on development of MicroBioDx, a novel microbiome-host profiling tool for health and disease.
Leiden/Nijmegen, The Netherlands
TenWise BV and Predica Diagnostics BV have received financial support from the Dutch RVO (MIT-R&D-samenwerkingsproject) for the joint development of the high-throughput MicroBioDX platform for the characterization of microbiome-host interactions and their role in inflammatory bowel disease and cancer development and treatment.
Compared to existing state-of-the-art sequencing-based technologies, the MicroBioDX platform is more cost-effective, faster and more versatile: it maps host-microbiome interactions by yielding quantitative information on expression levels of hundreds of human genes of interest, while at the same time detecting pathogenic bacteria, fungi and viruses that are part of a diseased gut microbiome.
MicroBioDx uses ciRNAseq, Predica’s disruptive, high throughput targeted RNA sequencing technology in combination with TenWise’s expertise on literature mining, artificial intelligence and algorithm development, to detect biological pathways associated with health and disease. This combination will help researchers and medical doctors to better predict patient prognosis and guide treatment with precision medicines. Also, MicroBioDx will reduce costs of analyses for large datasets and reduce throughput time from a matter of weeks to a matter of days. It will therefore be very relevant for the evaluation of results of large clinical trials and of individual patients for whom a rapid diagnosis is essential.
“TenWise collaborates with Predica as ciRNAseq allows to measure both DNA/RNA from the human host as well as the microbiome from one and the same human sample. This means that human gene expression data and microbiome data are generated faster and interactions between the microbiome and host are determined more accurately. Within this project Predica also provides access to large data sets that we will use to validate our text mining based predictions”, comments Dr. Wynand Alkema, CSO of TenWise.
“Predica welcomes TenWise as a partner with expertise that is highly complementary to that of Predica”, says Dr. William Leenders, CSO of Predica Diagnostics. “As an expert in text mining and machine learning, TenWise will design knowledge maps of biological pathways that link relevant micro-organisms to expression of human genes that are part of the host response in health and disease. These knowledge maps are essential elements of the data interpretation software we will develop for researchers and for medical doctors who will be supported in rapid and accurate treatment of their patients.”
Predica Diagnostics B.V is a spinoff from the Radboudumc, active in the field of diagnostics, prognostics and prediction of treatment response in oncology. Predica Diagnostics aims to bring its ciRNAseq technology to patients in 1 to 2 years with a first focus on developing the CervicaDX test. This test allows non-invasive detection of cervical abnormalities in women who are at risk of developing cervical cancer, with unprecedented specificity. This, and other diagnostic tests for host-microbiome interactions will improve diagnosis, prognosis prediction and produce a list of potentially successful precision medicines, thus aiding in development of personalized treatment plans for cancer patients.
Contact: www.predica-diagnostics.com
Marco de Boer CEO
+31 6 4444 8450
TenWise B.V. offers text mining solutions that help researchers and medical professionals to extract knowledge from literature in a fast and effective way. Also, it collaborates within consortia of industry and academia in life sciences on artificial intelligence solutions that assist in drug discovery with a special focus on interventions in the microbiome. The company is based at Leiden Bio Science Park, the Netherlands and works for clients around the world.
Contact: www.tenwise.nl
Nils Hijlkema CCO
+31 6 1171 8915