Kanvas Biosciences, a full-stack spatial biology company, has officially published the results from its new research, which outlines the capabilities of company’s High-Phylogenetic-Resolution Spatial Mapping (HiPR-Map) Platform.
In case you weren’t aware, the stated platform happens to bring a state-of-the-art spectral imaging technology, geared towards powering precise enumeration and spatial localization of microbial cells within complex communities.
Coming back to the research in question, titled “Multiscale Spatial Mapping of Microbial Communities for Biotherapeutic Development,” it effectively reveals how Kanvas’ HiPR-Map Platform outperforms gold standard methods, such as metagenomics sequencing, especially in low biomass settings, achieving detection of single microbial cells across large imaging areas and at relative abundances below 0.01%.
You see, with species-level identification of microbes, as well as an active bid to address ribosomal RNA (rRNA) at single-nucleotide resolution, the company’s proprietary technology can provide unique insights for live biotherapeutic product (LBP) discovery and development.
To understand the significance of such a development, we must take into account how, when treating diseases like colitis, cancer, and more, LBPs becomes a crucial advancement over traditional fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs). Having said so, if we are to replicate the bacterial complexity and therapeutic potential of natural fecal material, information far greater than microorganisms is required.
Furthermore, a deeper understanding of microbial interactions, with each other, their host, dietary factors and environmental conditions, is also critical.
In the given context, Kanvas’ HiPR-Map Platform can identify microbial species, while simultaneously delivering comprehensive insights into their functional interactions and dynamics. Such an extensive level of information paves the way for precise manipulation and optimization of LBPs, thus significantly enhancing their therapeutic potential.
“HiPR-Map’s unparalleled accuracy and exceptional spatial resolution position it as a transformative breakthrough, with potential extending well beyond LBP applications,” said Dr. Prateek Sehgal, Senior Principal Scientist at Kanvas Bio. “Kanvas’ platform empowers researchers to visualize and dissect complex microbial communities across diverse fields, for instance, providing novel diagnostic insights and advancing the understanding of microbiota in nutritional health.”
As for the results from Kanvas’ latest research, they go on to reveal superior technical strengths of HiPR-Map in comparison to sequencing. We get to say so because HiPR-Map can seamlessly detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 16S rRNA sequence to enable species-level microbial identification and achieve a sensitivity of 0.01% that outperforms sequencing. It particularly does that across low-biomass environments.
Next up, we must expand upon engraftment profile of Kanvas LBPs in a mouse GI tract in the ileum, cecum, and colon. Here, HiPR-Map essentially revealed host-microbiome-food interactions, and at the same time, showed preferential enrichment of certain species near hosts in different regions of the gut.
Alongside that, the study also revealed microbial enrichment inside or on the boundary of some food particles, something which could be used to inform dietary influences on LBP response.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in the study’s focus on spatial interactions of microbes at microscale and mesoscale: At microscale, HiPR-Map basically showed positive and negative associations of certain species in different regions of the GI tract. At mesoscale, on the other hand, the existence of certain neighborhoods was found to contain varying compositions of different species.
All in all, these distinctive patterns, which would otherwise be lost with sequencing, are understood to play a vital for LBP manufacturing and evaluating its therapeutic potential.
The development in question also delivers a rather interesting follow-up to Kanvas unveiling data, back in November, from a clinical trial of FMT and anti-PD-1 re-induction in microsatellite instability-high refractory cancers. The result of this trial suggested that the gut microÂbioÂme affects anti-tumoral immuÂniÂty in a tumor-agnosÂtic manner.
“LBPs show great promise for positively modulating the microbiome, a critical component of human health, however existing tools aren’t sufficient for developing complex, next generation LBPs,” said Dr. Phil Burnham, Chief Scientific Officer, Kanvas. “Kanvas’ HiPR-Map technology delivers comprehensive analysis and ultra-high resolution – both optically and taxonomically – while achieving imaging over millimeter-length scales and doing so at cost parity with traditional sequencing. Our latest research shows that our platform can optimize LBP manufacturing and provide a framework for assessing LBPs’ therapeutic potential.”
