KYTOS, a start-up created by Belgian scientists from Ghent University, and Appsilon, a data science and machine learning company, have partnered to build what they are calling the “world’s most-extensive” database of microbiomes for the aquaculture industry.
The database will feature an interactive dashboard providing aquaculturists with detailed information about microbiomes that could impact farming operations, according to an Appsilon press release, allowing for more sustainable, profitable, and controllable aquaculture production.
“Being able to better identify the microbiome communities in the agricultural and biotechnological processes and understanding what affects them and how is a necessity,” Appsilon said. “Whether you are a shrimp farmer in Indonesia or run a small, artisan brewery in the U.K., you need to pay close attention to the health of your system’s microbiome.”
KYTOS, a spin-off company of the Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology at Ghent University, develops technology to quickly analyze the microbiome in water samples. Samples are propelled through high-powered laser beams that allow the rapid assessment of the physiological properties of cellular organisms within, providing a snapshot of the microbiome.
“This type of holistic approach is an innovation in the industry. We are scientists at heart, so we wanted to understand the microbiome with all its complexities,” KYTOS Co-Founder Ruben Props said. “But we soon realized that this can be a valuable source of information to manage microbes in industry. As a result, we do not just measure every cell in the sample, but we also offer automated profiling of microbiome and data-driven recommendations on how to maintain its health.”
The issue, KYTOS found, is that the approach rapidly creates an enormous amount of data. To obtain meaningful information from the tens of thousands of samples, which each contain enormous amounts of information as the system samples up to 5,000 microbes per second, KYTOS has teamed with Appsilon to employ the data science and machine learning solutions the company has developed.
For its part of the partnership, Appsilon is creating an easy-to-use system to access and understand that data.
“Our goal was to create a dashboard which would be easy to use and navigate for the end user, with quick access to the most-important information and an opportunity for a seamless integration with other technologies,” Appsilon President Damian Rodziewicz said.
Using the information, aquaculture operations can then identify and control the health of the operation’s microbiome, Rodziewicz said.
“We also wanted to make sure that all solutions used were easy to scale up and would keep their high-performance levels with the increased volumes of data and numbers of users,” Rodziewicz said. “That is why we also decided to build the entire infrastructure, making such solutions financially viable at the early stages of the company's development.”
As a result of the work, the companies are creating a library of “microbiome fingerprints,” that the companies said will be the “world’s largest microbiome database in aquaculture and agriculture.”
“KYTOS technology provides detailed recommendations on what to do, allowing for more sustainable farming, better for the whole ecosystem,” the press release states. “And at the end of the day, all this translates into higher profits and a healthier planet.”
Photo courtesy of KYTOS
