On July 20, 2021 Microbial cancer detection firm Micronoma reported that it is collaborating with the University of New South Wales, Sydney under a $4 million grant from the Australian government to apply artificial intelligence technology toward developing microbial biomarkers for the early detection of liver cancer (Press release, Micronoma, JUL 20, 2021, View Source [SID1234585497]).

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Amany Zekry and Emad El-Omar, both professors at UNSW Medicine & Health, are leading the effort alongside co-principal investigator and Micronoma CSO Eddie Adams.

The group will use Micronoma’s AI-driven microbial biomarker technology to detect, validate, and translate blood-borne microbial-derived biomarkers for the early detection of HCC — something the company has already been working on internally.

Micronoma CEO Sandrine Miller-Montgomery said in a statement that interest in the link between circulating microbiome signatures and cancer early detection has been growing since the firm’s proof-of-concept publication in Nature last year.

"Developing a method to enable the identification of robust microbial plasma biomarker signatures of HCC is in our product pipeline, and this collaboration enables us to fast-track product development," she added.