Brightseed announced that it’s received a $1.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to use its artificial intelligence platform, Forager, to identify bioactive compounds which may target environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) in undernourished pregnant and lactating women, impacting global birth and infant outcomes.
 
EED is a poorly-understood condition caused in part by nutrient deficiencies, undernutrition, certain gut infections, and abnormal gut microbiota. While EED is usually asymptomatic, it can cause nutrient malabsorption, stunting, and wasting in infants, which can have long-term effects on the development of affected children.
 
Brightseed will use AI to screen more than 7 million plant compounds to find candidates which can then be validated through preclinical and clinical models. The project will ultimately result in the development of candidate nutritional products and potential therapeutics to support gut health in pregnant and lactating mothers in order to improve birth outcomes.
 
“We’re extremely honored to receive this grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue to work toward addressing such a crucial global health crisis,” said Sofia Elizondo, co-founder and chief operating officer of Brightseed. “Our proprietary technology enables us to develop scalable, nature-based solutions that were never previously possible, and by analyzing plant raw material from the local regions impacted most by undernutrition, our aim is that these sources will be both accessible and affordable.”
 
The company previously received a $200,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a proof-of-concept program in which Brightseed discovered natural compounds that mimic aspects of azithromycin in support of maternal gut health. The results of this program suggests there is an opportunity to use Forager AI to discover more novel plant-derived products which can address gut health in mothers, delivering better maternal and infant health outcomes. Gut barrier changes are common physiological occurrences in undernourished individuals and are a hallmark of diseases like EED, so this program will seek out plant compounds that directly impact intestinal barrier.
 
The grant-funded program directly supports the foundation’s goal of developing affordable solutions to improve birth and infant outcomes by addressing impaired gut health in mothers, according to Brightseed. Marrying the company’s technology and experience developing ingredients with the foundation’s global health expertise and scientific network supports a unique opportunity to bring a product to market for improved birth outcomes via maintenance of mothers’ healthy intestinal barrier.