Kanvas Biosciences

Researchers can use genome sequencing to figure out which microbes live in our guts or in the biofilms on our teeth or our implanted devices. But it’s much harder to figure out exactly where those microbes are, or how their distri­b­u­tion is changing over time. Kanvas’s founders invented a system that uses barcoded fluorescent probes and machine learning clas­si­fi­ca­tion to map microbial communities in the gut and the mouth. The company plans to use the technique to find new ways to exploit the microbiome to improve health human, including developing novel ther­a­peu­tics, under­standing better how drugs are metabolized in the gut, and providing better diagnostic insights into infectious disease.