Using AI in clinical genomics

What do you do?

I am the Co-founder and CEO of HaystackAnalytics, a life sciences deep-tech company working in clinical genomics. At Haystack, we have built an AI-enabled platform that can ingest raw next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and use contextual and semantic search to determine the exact DNA change in the sample, which can then be mapped to a therapy. Essentially, we use genomics to enable first-time-right therapeutic choices.

Why is your work important globally?

While the field of clinical genomics is not new, it is far from actionability, accessibility, and affordability and is still locked up in high-end research labs. We aimed to transform NGS into a leapfrog technology for India and other countries with poor healthcare infrastructure so that any lab can start using genomics for patients. The IP that we have created enables NGS to provide results in a few hours at a cost comparable to the currently available RT-PCR technology.

What is exciting about your work?

Our product Infexn-NGS combines diagnostic kits with an AI-enabled software, allowing any molecular diagnostic lab to start using it without prior knowledge or skill in genomics or bioinformatics, with a turnaround time of less than 24 hours. However, nothing motivates us more than the lives we are helping save. With a rapid rise in anti-microbial resistance, our technology helps administer the right therapy and detects the antibiotics that will not work for the specific pathogen type in the patient.

Any experiences in college that led you to become an entrepreneur?

Far from it. I have been in science forever. In my Ph.D. and further research at Oxford, I studied the genetic mechanisms of the evolution of drug resistance in TB and later computational methods for decoding anti-microbial resistance. During my time at Oxford, I was part of the team that launched genomics for TB for the NHS in the U.K. and I became interested in ways this technology could be made available to patients in India.

What should students specifically know about applying AI to healthcare?

To begin with, AI will transform diagnostics and enable early detection of diseases. I think AI is going to be a great leveller of opportunity. With AI, a student of Maths or Social Sciences is as likely to have an equal opportunity to tackle healthcare as a student of Biology or Medicine. If I were a student today, I would spend a lot of time in the real world learning about a problem in my areas of interest. In short, gain deep knowledge in something and then go out into the real world to observe how a certain process works. The rest will be done using AI.

The writer is an avid follower of emerging technologies and their applications.