A Purdue University-affiliated start-up is developing an intelligent software platform aimed at helping biologists use microbes -- the microscopic organisms that live in, on and around humans, plants, animals and more -- to cure diseases, improve crops and make livestock healthier.

Rajesh Perianayagam is the founder of Karyosoft, which created Loci, a web-based time- and cost-saving software solution for microbial genomics data. The goal is to help microbiome biologists "make the difference" faster, freeing up bioinformaticians' time and increasing the value of their organizations by minimizing data loss.

Perianayagam believes his software will help biologists who are researching ways to use microbes to cure cancer, diabetes and Crohn's disease, ways to produce higher-yielding crops and ways to improve the welfare of cattle and sheep by decreasing bloating, lactic acidosis and more.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that 1.74 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed this year and that 609,640 people will die from the disease, and the American Diabetes Assn. estimates that 9.4% of Americans have diabetes.

There also is increasing concern about the ability to feed people, with the world population on pace to exceed 9.5 billion by 2050. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that there already are 870 million people around the world who do not have access to a sufficient supply of nutritious and safe food. USDA also says animal disease is one of the greatest threats to animal agriculture.

Because of the availability of cheaper next-generation sequencing technologies, huge amounts of genomics data are being generated from various microbes, and this can cause challenges for organizations in terms of storage, management and analysis. This scenario will get worse in the future, as 99.99% of 1 trillion microbes have yet to be discovered, but that will become will be possible with the next-generation sequencing technologies.

"One of the problems is that, often, biologists don't have strong computational skills. Hence, they are dependent on experts with computational skills (bioinformaticians) to retrieve genetic information from genomics data," Perianayagam said. "This leaves a huge gap between data and biologists, which causes a delay in innovations and adds extra workload for already busy bioinformaticians. We want to empower biologists by connecting them directly to genomics data in real time and providing customized, simple-to-use analytics through the user-friendly interface so they can transform data into innovations and knowledge faster. Also, we want to reduce bioinformaticians' workload and save them time so they can focus on more challenging problems."

Another issue is data loss due to improper storage of the sequence data on, for example, an external hard drive, thumb drive or a local computer; these are not the right places to store the data generated from precious biological samples. Because of that, scientists spend 80% of their time just on preparation -- organizing and collecting data instead of spending time on discoveries. This means organizations are spending billions of dollars on data preparation.

"We learned interviewing experts conducting microbiome research that biologists could reach their project goals at least 25% faster and bioinformaticians could save up to 50% of the time if there is a suitable software solution is available," Perianayagam said, noting that this created the motivation to develop Loci.

"Loci, being highly scalable, minimizes data preparation time by bringing all their genomics data together in one place and minimizes data loss, [which] increases the value for their organization. Also, Loci helps biologists to efficiently organize, manage, analyze and visualize microbial genome sequence data through a user-friendly interface," he added.

Researching microbiomes is not easy because there are a lot of variables. Due to improvements in methods to sequence DNA, scientists have a greater understanding of the biology, diversity and evolution of microbes, but there is still much to learn about these vast communities living in people, plants, animals and more. For starters, scientists want to know how many types of bacteria live in and around living organisms and their environment so they can use that knowledge to improve the quality of life.

Perianayagam believes Loci can help biologists find answers to many of those questions by directly connecting them with genomics data and helping them find novel solutions for improvement of crops, animals, humans and overall life.

"Our vision is to become industry leaders in providing next-generation customized software solutions that make complex data analytics simple in life sciences. To do that, first we are developing a platform to bring all genomics data together," Perianayagam said. "Today, science strives to cover advances that reveal the specific ways in which the microbiota influences the physiology of the host, both in a healthy and in a diseased state. Researchers also are trying to determine how the microbiota may be manipulated, either at the organismal or molecular level, to improve the health of the host."

Perianayagam said what sets Karyosoft apart is its focus on microbiome research.

"We thought it is a great place to be because this research is in its infancy stage. There is a huge difference between what is discovered in microbiome world compared to what is not discovered," he said. "Another differentiator is that we aim exclusively at genome data storage, management and customer-specific analytics, not on raw data assembly and annotation. This exclusive area of focus in customers' workflow saves time for both biologists and bioinformaticians, saves cost through increased efficiency and increases the value to the organizations by bringing all data in one place and minimizing the data loss."

He said taking part in programs at Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator at the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in Discovery Park on the Purdue University campus, and the national NSF-I-Corps, helped get the company off the ground, while market validation helped him understand the needs of customers and where to focus the business.

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator whose professionals help Purdue innovators create start-ups. It is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation.