Friday, November 15, 2019
Viome, a mission-driven company aiming to improve people’s health based on individual biology, today announced a partnership with GSK, the world’s leading vaccine company, to increase understanding of chronic diseases and a potential role for vaccines. The long-term goal is to help prevent some chronic diseases and reduce the number of relapses.
Millions of people suffer from chronic diseases and scientific studies suggest that certain microbes living in the gut can produce protein molecules that mimic parts of human proteins, which can then cause the human immune system to respond to some of the body’s own cells resulting in chronic diseases. An understanding of what is happening in the gut may become the foundation of how we prevent and treat many of the chronic diseases.
“The current healthcare system is built on the belief that chronic diseases are incurable and that, at best, we can only manage the symptoms,” explained Viome CEO and Founder, Naveen Jain. "At Viome, we believe most chronic diseases can be prevented, and even reversed if the right minds can come together. We are beyond excited about our partnership with the GSK team who bring deep expertise in high-quality vaccines and are committed to the prevention of chronic diseases.”
“We are very excited to partner with Viome because they have the technology to analyze human and microbial gene expressions in order to build predictive models that could guide vaccine development. Combining GSK’s vaccine expertise with Viome’s proprietary microbiome analysis and artificial intelligence platforms is a promising step forward in developing broader, vaccine-based therapies to help prevent and treat chronic diseases,” said Emmanuel Hanon, Senior Vice President, Head of R&D at GSK Vaccines.
Innovative companies are striving to develop new vaccines for the many diseases that continue to threaten individuals, families, and communities around the world. GSK and Viome firmly believe that the effectiveness of a vaccine completely depends upon an individual’s immune system, for which the gut microbiome has a contributory role. Viome is committed to creating a world where chronic diseases could truly be prevented before they cause significant problems.
