ByAlex Knapp,
Synthetic microbiomes to treat disease. Sea levels may rise faster than we thought. AI for scientific researchers. All that and more in this week’s edition of The Prototype. To get it in your inbox, sign up here.
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round 150 million children worldwide are at risk for a disease called environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), particularly those who live regions with poor sanitation. This causes severe gut inflammation, preventing them from absorbing nutrients from food. There is no approved medicine for the disease, though some interventions can help and others are being researched.
Kanvas Biosciences cofounder and CEO Matthew Cheng is aiming higher. His startup received new funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a treatment for EED. How? By developing a synthetic bacterial microbiome that can be delivered to patients in a pill.
