Sydney headquartered start-up 23Strands is applying artificial intelligence (AI) to whole genome sequencing to provide cutting-edge insights that will pave the way for personalised medicine and improved patient care.
Already, 23Strands is collaborating with prestigious medical research stakeholders and has received several research grants to further its methodology, which has applications relevant to a wide range of medical conditions. One of them is with the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, with whom they are working on a new method for the early identification and treatment of heart disease. The partnership is one of the first projects in Australia that has a multi-party data sharing agreement enabling industry and researchers to collaborate using cutting-edge methodologies.
23Strands will also provide a seamless digital health data platform that aggregates a patient’s health data from different sources, as part of a broader set of work with the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA) in identifying and preventing heart attacks in individuals who do not have traditional warning signs, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. This research is expected to bring benefits to early identification of heart disease and to empower doctors and patients with the latest in scientific breakthroughs.
23Strands is also supporting the efforts of Professor Alex Brown, Professor Daniel McAuther and their teams to pioneer a national consortium working to advance the benefits of genomic medicine for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Awarded a $5 million Synergy grant by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the project is supported by a consortium of industry, researchers, Indigenous community health organisations and genetic experts.
The start-up is also a key commercial partner in the project led by CAD Frontiers’ Professor Gemma Figtree, which aims to prevent heart attacks by discovering and implementing new blood biomarkers that identify silent coronary artery disease (CAD), as well as new drugs that target an individual’s CAD susceptibility and halt disease progression. 23Strands is using its cutting-edge technology to identify and link biomarkers to the potential for CAD.
It is also an industry partner in developing innovative AI-driven medical technologies to address diverse challenges confronting patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems, under the umbrella of the CSIRO. The program, called the Next Generation Graduates Program, has enabled Dr Fatemeh Vafaee and Dr Hamid Alemjid-Rokny to lead three projects in digital medicine, using AI technologies that will develop intelligent systems custom-built to tackle industrial problems. These innovative AI-driven medical technologies have the potential to revolutionise disease diagnosis, drug discovery, therapeutic interventions, clinical decision support systems and automated clinical reporting.
“23Strands is making significant inroads into the application of AI and genome sequencing in various clinical, research and industrial settings and we are proud to expand our university collaboration with UNSW since being one of ten companies to go through the UNSW Health10X accelerator in 2020,” the start-up’s CEO, Mark Grosser, said. “This program will complement the amazing work we are doing with others, such as Professor Jie Lu and her team at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute and UTS, and we are keen on applying AI to important health challenges, such as rare childhood diseases.”
