Flightpath, a biosciences company based in Berkeley, Calif., is developing a non-invasive test that may be able to determine whether or not a person has chronic Lyme disease through analysis of a stool sample.
This diagnostic approach is based on research by Kim Lewis, a professor of biology at Boston’s Northeastern University. He determined that by genetically profiling the mix of microorganisms that live in human intestines, called the microbiome, genetic patterns might be used to diagnose early- through late-stage Lyme disease infections.
Flightpath has finished sequencing and is beginning functional analysis of blood and stool samples of more than 500 samples from Lyme disease and healthy subjects. They expect to create a diagnostic product within 3 months and have preliminary results on therapeutic development opportunities within six to twelve months. CEO Matt Tindall was encouraged by the eagerness of Lyme patients to participate in the trial — it only took a few days to enroll volunteers, a process that was predicted to take six months or more.
Flightpath recently joined Invisible International’s “Tick-borne Illness Diagnostics Development Incubator,” a yearlong collaborative forum designed to help bring better diagnostics solutions to the market faster and to gain an edge in the LymeX Diagnostics Moonshot prizes.
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