How This Biotech Startup Is Combining Mathematics, Chemistry And Biology To Help Treat Cancer, Other Chronic Diseases

While identifying gaps in the current healthcare system, Sushant opined that while our DNA can tell the risk of genetic diseases & potential to develop chronic diseases, DNA cannot be blamed for the development of chronic diseases.

Sushant, founder & CEO of Genefitletics, a health & longevity startup bridging the gap between scientific discoveries and human health, is on a journey to eradicate the epidemic of chronic disease & cancer. The journey started while he was witnessing the pain his parents were going through while dealing with type 2 diabetes & colon cancer. He discovered that pharmaceutical strategies adopted by healthcare fall short of carving out disease-modifying interventions. He found that the healthcare system misses out on evaluating the role of microbiome in systemic inflammation & disease development. He decided to embark on a mission to uncover the potential of microbes to restore human & planetary health. Genefitletics recently closed a pre-seed round of Rs 25 lakh at a pre-money valuation of Rs 7.5 crore to upgrade its technology footprint. The company has already helped patients overcome systemic health issues such as type 2 diabetes, Hashimoto, Eczema, Autism, Hypertension, IBD, Obesity, Psoriasis & more. 

While identifying gaps in the current healthcare system, Sushant opined that while our DNA can tell the risk of genetic diseases & potential to develop chronic diseases, DNA cannot be blamed for the development of chronic diseases. The interaction between the microbiome & human body alters our genes expression which changes our physiology & makes us develop diseases. The focus should not be on genes but on how those genes are expressed, he added. The company offers a unique human microbiome therapeutics platform-PROTEBA that works at the congruence of system biology & machine learning is a hotbed of biochemical activities taking place inside your body at the molecular level. Digitizing the human body at the molecular level starts with analyzing biology + chemistry using a tip of a biological sample, be it stool, saliva or vaginal swab. 

PROTEBA first uses next-generation sequencing technology & bioinformatics algorithms to convert the molecules in your biological samples into digital information. This digital information is nothing but biochemical & molecular activities taking place inside the body. This digital information is combined with your self-reported phenotype, making a total of 100 billion data points per sample( molecular data points from sample x self-reported phenotype x scientific & clinical literature). Then, the system applies a mathematical algorithm on top of it to transform these huge data sets into biological pathways. Scoring each of 30 pathway activities helps to identify pre-symptomatic molecular signatures predictive of chronic diseases & cancer & determine the level of suboptimality of various biological functions at a molecular level.

The company has one of the largest food ontology databases which is translated into 25000 plus molecular ingredients. As a final step, the machine learning model match these molecular ingredients with various biochemical pathways & molecular signatures to determine which molecules are going to be transformed by the person's microbiome into byproducts that are going regulate those biochemical pathways & suppress molecular signatures involved in disease & which ones are going to be transformed into harmful chemicals which are going to make you progress towards disease state. Finally, these molecules are mapped with various foods & supplements in our database to arrive at precision nutrition interventions.

The interventions arrived at are completely objective, computer & data-driven with no human intervention & are aimed at suppressing the inflammatory molecules so that a person doesn't develop a disease. Over the next 5 years, Genefitletics plans to help at least 1 million people reclaim control of their health. "Our Gut & mouth harbors 40 trillion & 100 billion microorganisms, making them largest & second largest microbial colonizers respectively. GUT houses the largest compartment of immune cells in the body performs critical biological functions & transforms our approach towards nutrition, medicine & external environment. 

Gut & Oral Microbes transform bioactive molecules in food we eat into secondary metabolites that program our biology for either health or disease. Decoding functions of microbiome & determining what bioactive molecules or chemicals via food or supplements your microbes need right now so that both human & microbial genes are rightly expressed is key to keep chronic diseases at bay," said Sushant Kumar.

While sharing his thoughts on the development of cancer, Sushant said that immune surveillance plays a key role in eliminating cancer cells. Given the fact that 70% of immune cells reside along the gut lining, gut microbes are a catalyst in this immune regulation. However, during systemic inflammation, cancer cells recruit gut microbes that convince immune cells to avoid the attack in the areas where they're thriving, preventing their detection & leading to the development of tumours. He further added the effectiveness of chemotherapy & cancer drugs depends upon the health & functions of the microbiome.

The company plans to expand its footprint to UAE, Qatar & Saudi Arabia in the coming year to address a large spectrum of chronic diseases as these economies lack a microbiome footprint. The company is also in the process of launching two new tests- Oral microbiome & human cells tests. ORAHYG, which is set to launch in the third week of August 2023. ORAHYG, is Asia's first Oral microbiome test which will decode the biochemical reactions happening at the top of the digestive tube- the mouth. In the same month, the company will be launching Asia's first & only precision formula engineered for an individual's unique biology based on molecular insights derived via PROTEBA.