Brightseed, creator of the Forager AI which maps the health impact of plant-based bioactives, has announced an initial $200k grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation toward improving maternal health and improved birth outcomes through insights generated by Forager.
As part of a global public health intervention to reduce undernutrition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports the development of balanced energy protein (BEP) food supplements as it is currently recommended by WHO to pregnant women in countries with high undernutrition burden.
Forager‘s goal is to illuminate the molecular underpinnings of the bioactives contained in existing supplements so the industry can have a better understanding of compounds that may contribute to better maternal and child outcomes. With deeper visibility enabled by the AI, it may be possible to further optimise the BEP product contents and maximise its efficacy for maternal and infant health, Brightseed claims. The project also aims to identify plant compounds that can mimic the benefits of azithromycin without some of the negative side effects of antibiotics, such as antibiotic resistance.
Sofia Elizondo, co-founder and COO at Brightseed said, “We’re honoured to receive grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to address such an important global health issue for maternal health and infant health. With Forager, we have the ability to look to nature to access affordable and scalable solutions that were never previously possible.”
Through machine learning and -omics analyses, Brightseed says Forager is able to predict and validate which distinct bioactive compounds from specific plants can hold the largest impact to fundamental biological processes that drive human health.
“This is an exciting application of Forager’s molecular visibility. We are approaching this problem with the biological mechanisms happening in the gut as our first point of entry,” said Lee Chae, co-founder, Chief Technology Officer and creator of Forager. “We’ll soon have an expansive outlook on what bioactives are creating these cascading effects, and how we can improve their functioning between mothers and newborns to result in positive health outcomes.”