Aspherical 2011, the Nationwide Institute of Animal Diet and Physiology in Bengaluru had been finding out the food plan patterns of Indian civilisations from three intervals — Indus Valley Civilisation, the Vedic Civilisation and the Iron Age.
It was discovered that our ancestors had been rising and consuming prebiotics like lentils and tubers that assist in strengthening intestine well being by growing ‘good’ micro organism and combating pathogens.
So, for generations, Indians have given significance to intestine well being, and sciences like Ayurveda and Naturopathy have at all times promoted it. The sciences have focussed on how a wholesome intestine retains the thoughts and physique wholesome too.
Exploring the side of how intestine well being is the basis reason behind all lifestyle-related illnesses, a Bengaluru-based startup has discovered an revolutionary device to detect the identical. Leucine Wealthy Bio Pvt Ltd developed BugSpeaks, a package that analyses microbiomes within the human gut and gives suggestions to re-balance the intestine microbiome.
The package additionally helps in catching the danger of 16 illnesses like Sort 2 diabetes, persistent kidney illness, blood stress, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel illness, hypertension, and rheumatoid arthritis. Based mostly on the affected person’s reviews, the package suggests obligatory corrective actions.
Bugspeaks was launched in 2019 and since then the corporate has offered round 4,500 kits.
Based in 2014 by Kumar Sankaran, CEO; Prabhath Okay M, chief product officer and Dr Debojyoti Dhar, director, enterprise growth & innovation, the corporate has a group of scientists with specialisations in microbiology, molecular biology, immunology and programs biology that helped in growing the package.
“We wished to develop an answer which can change the healthcare paradigm, shifting it from ‘sick care’ to ‘well being care’. We felt that the microbiome, particularly the intestine microbiome, is the right approach to do that. All of the science is comparatively new, the affect of the microbiome on human well being and wellness is gigantic,” Sankaran tells The Higher India.
The corporate has acquired the ‘Frost & Sullivan Award’ twice and in 2021, they gained the Nationwide Begin-up Award within the ‘LifeSciences’ class.
Tailor-made for Indian Folks & Meals
The three founders met whereas working for a drug firm and realised a niche in shopper microbiome exams that had been in any other case available in different nations.
The trio then developed a dry lab, software program and two algorithms. Their database accommodates particulars of all of the microorganisms and their relation with varied illnesses. One other part updates itself with the newest analysis articles and the third one gives info on vitamins.
Within the preliminary interval, the corporate carried out trials and initiatives to check their accuracy on microbiome information.
“Once we began there was no Indian microbiome information. We went round amassing samples from completely different elements of the nation, beginning with mine, to guage the Indian microbiome. Concurrently, we did a slew of consultancy initiatives for academia corresponding to Human Microbiology Institute, New York, Emory College, Atlanta, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the College of Arkansas For Medical Sciences and the College of Virginia, College of Drugs. They’d ship their microbiome information, we might analyse the info and share it again with them. With each mission we iteratively improved our algorithms and information analytics,” says Sankaran.
They carried out research with the Therapeutic Palms in Pune and Bengaluru Wellness Centre (Potential Well being Growth) as properly.
The primary USPs of BugSpeaks, says Sankaran, is that the package is tailor-made for the Indian inhabitants and Indian meals suggestions. And he claims to be the primary firm in India and South Asia to launch a product within the microbiome area.
The package is for each customers and docs and clinics who prescribe the take a look at for his or her sufferers.
“Earlier, we needed to ship our samples overseas however now we use BugSpeak which has cutting-edge expertise. Within the final couple of years, we did greater than 500 exams. All their outcomes are customised as per an Indian’s gastrointestinal system which may be very completely different from a caucasian attributable to our various meals vary,” says Ramakrishna, who handles enterprise and product growth at Giga Healthcare and Potential Well being Growth.
How Does BugSpeak Work
The first purpose of the non-invasive take a look at is to detect the imbalances within the intestine microbiome utilizing parameters like metabolic exercise, gene expression, symbiotic and parasitic actions.
All one has to do is register, take a small quiz and e-book a take a look at on their web site.
The corporate will ship the package to the affected person’s doorstep to gather stool samples. It’ll decide up the pattern to extract DNA and sequence it. The uncooked information is then used to analyse the microorganism. The outcomes are fed into the interpretation engine which provides out the ultimate report.
The report is split into three elements. The primary half offers info on the danger of illnesses, the second suggests a personalised dietary food plan and the third accommodates info on prebiotics and probiotics.
“The take a look at offers a snapshot of your present well being, the illnesses you might be inclined to and the adjustments in food plan and life-style which are required to cut back the danger of getting a illness. At one shot you possibly can mitigate numerous hostile well being outcomes,” says Sankaran.
The beginning worth of the take a look at is Rs 9,999 which is sort of Rs 16,000 lower than when it was launched. The corporate hopes to carry down the value additional.
In addition they hope to launch an app quickly which can give attention to community-driven engagement on intestine well being and well being usually together with personalised suggestions from the take a look at.
The group is presently engaged on growing a testing system for different microbiomes like oral and pores and skin and shall be launched within the subsequent few months.
Sources:
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
