At Pragma Bio, they believe that the human body is teeming with miraculous microbes that can help us avoid diseases and even extend our lifespan. With their new funding, they plan to embark on the first phase of a 10-year plan to harness these secret assets and create medications to improve our health.
The VastBiome company announced today that it has rebranded itself to Pneuma, in an effort to better reflect the growing technologies and products that the company offers. VastBiome raised a $4.5 million seed round in 2020, and its technology aims to improve air quality around the world. Today’s announcement signals further growth for Pneuma, as it looks to bolster its offerings with cutting-edge technology and a more well-rounded identity.
The microbes that live in our bodies are incredibly important. Many of them are benign, but a handful can cause diseases. However, there is evidence that certain microbes correlate with better outcomes in a number of illnesses, including cancers. Some scientists believe that the presence or absence of these specific microbes may play a role in cancer development and progression.
Pragma Bio is a startup that manufactures chemicals from molecules found in the human body. They believe that these molecules are harmless and argue that they should not be seen as toxins.
Pragma’s gut biome map is a valuable tool for understanding how microbiota affects human health. By identifying which microbes are associated with each disease pathology, researchers can develop targeted therapies that improve overall patient health.
There is increasing evidence that our microbiome – the vast array of microbial cells inhabiting our body – has a significant impact on overall health. Perhaps one of the most intriguing examples of this is cancer; those who respond well to therapy almost always have a similar microbiome profile, which contains lots of microbe B that produces molecule C. If we could isolate molecule C and study its properties in more detail, it could potentially be used to help others effectively treat their cancer using therapy A. Thus, understanding the makeup and function of our microbiota is an important step towards improving overall health and preventing numerous diseases.
The Pragma team is working on a statistical model that can help identify likely candidates for investigation in immunotherapy. One particularly close relationship between the microbiome and immunotherapy is being looked into here, and it seems that this area of research has a lot of potential. With this type of data-driven analysis, Pragma may be able to provide better outcomes for patients who are undergoing immunotherapy treatments.
There is great potential for using bacteria to develop new medications, but this comes with challenges. For example, drug companies are typically interested in developing molecules rather than individual bacteria. According to Barghouti, this is because they do not understand how to commercialize bacteria effectively. By mapping the interactions between bacterial cells and their own immune systems, however, scientists may be able to better identify which molecules are most effective in treating diseases.
Pragma Bio is a new kind of software that helps scientists and researchers easily share their research data with each other. The software makes it easy for
With Pragma, you can sequence the organism and molecule while they are still in biological form, quickly and easily identifying exactly what you are looking for. This process is incredibly fast and efficient, leaving you free to focus on other aspects of your research while the machine does its job.
Is the efficiency of self-read systems really that impressive? After all, it would seem like a daunting challenge to go from DNA sequence to expression in just a few days. And yet, this is precisely what self-read systems are able to do – efficiently skipping over the billions of microorganisms that might be necessary for this process. This makes them an ideal partner for pharmaceutical companies who are willing to pay for leads – as they can quickly zero in on the molecule they’re looking for, without having to spend any time actually examining it.
Since the next step is where things start getting expensive, Pragma Partnerships has teamed up with some of the top pharma companies in the world. Through these partnerships, they have been able to synthesize more of a novel molecule more or less unknown to science and test its effects in vivo. While this process may not be cheap or simple, pharma Companies are happy to trade this resource for a potentially beneficial (and profitable) drug candidate
The process of drug development can be treacherous, with manyfalse starts and investment costs that often do not pay off. But that is also what brings opportunity. For example, Wistar Institute’s effort to develop therapeutics for Sub Zero Gastritis may have started slowly, but the team is now scaling up production in order to bring their treatments to market.
The new name, Microbe-Tech, reflects the refocusing of the company on already beneficial molecules. The old name suggested more of a gut health kind of thing, so they rebranded. This change comes with a realignment of the company around putting already beneficial molecules to work. This is a pragmatic approach; instead of trying to create entirely new products (which could take years), they are focusing on developing existing molecules and using them to improve human health in ways that are immediate and tangible.
The investment into EpiPen shows the increasing interest in health care innovation, and particularly in medications that can save lives. The investment so far was led by The Venture Collective, joined by Viking Global Investors, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and CJ Investments in Korea. With this influx of capital, EpiPen manufacturer Mylan will be able to continue development of new products and expand into other areas such as assistive technologies and generics.
