VastBiome

VastBiome, a drug discovery company, mines microorganisms in the human body for potential molecular drug candidates in the fields of cancer and autoimmune disease. Using proprietary methods in genomic sequencing, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, VastBiome aims to discover biomarkers and novel therapeutic molecules. The company relies on "VBx1," a customized machine learning platform, to analyze the bacteria in the human gut microbiome to better understand the specific roles they play in controlling health. This leads to the creation of select chemical alterations that trigger a patient's response to therapeutic treatment, the seed corn of novel therapies. VastBiome is targeting a rapidly growing, $20 billion market for outsourced drug discovery. The company, based in Millbrae, Calif., was founded in Houston in 2018 as a participant in the Texas Medical Center Biodesign fellowship. The company subsequently benefitted from involvement in the Illumina Accelerator, a business accelerator focused solely on creating an innovation ecosystem for the genomics industry.