Viome and Helomics Partner to Identify Personalized Treatment for Ovarian Cancer Patients

Friday, March 22, 2019

Viome, a company transforming health through personalized nutrition based on individual biology, today announces it will collaborate with precision health leader, Helomics, to study the link between the gut microbiome and ovarian cancer. The teams will begin with a pilot study, which aims to reveal how different cancer treatments impact the gut microbiome, and if the microbiome affects effectiveness and toxicity of various cancer treatments. The hope is to transform these findings into an innovative and holistic approach to help oncologists better personalize ovarian cancer therapy.

"We are excited to kick off this novel study to help the millions of women suffering from ovarian cancer," says Naveen Jain, CEO and founder of Viome. "We believe the outcome of our work will be revolutionary and will offer powerful insights and effective treatments for patients."

The study will leverage Viome's proprietary microbiome analysis platform and artificial intelligence (AI) platform. This will be combined with Helomics' proprietary drug response and genomic profiling of the patients' tumor, coupled with its AI-powered bioinformatics platform, D-CHIP. The study will investigate if the gut microbiome differs between ovarian cancer patients and those without cancer.

"Helomics pioneered using knowledge gained from drug response and genomic profiling of the patient's living tumor to help individualize ovarian cancer therapy. The collaboration with Viome is groundbreaking, generating data from the microbiome combined with our existing data and using our respective AI platforms, to offer an innovative, holistic and personalized approach to helping oncologists choose the best treatment options for patients with ovarian cancer," commented Gerald Vardzel, President and CEO of Helomics Corporation.

Viome will also explore the role of nutrition and the gut microbiome in ovarian cancer patients post-treatment in order to develop personalized food recommendations to support and restore the immune system, appetite, and sleep patterns often weakened by cancer treatment.

Another goal of this research study is to demonstrate that improving the gut microbiome through nutrition can play an important role in taking a holistic approach to treating ovarian.