Internationally renowned science-based organisation and pioneering TechBio platform expected to deliver innovative nature-based solutions through exciting public-private relationship
A new cooperation framework was signed between the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Eagle Genomics at the International Conference on Innovations to Transform Drylands.
Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT, and Anthony Finbow, Eagle Genomics CEO, signed the agreement overseen by an international gathering of some of the world’s foremost dryland agrifood system experts.
The MOU will see leading organisations – Eagle Genomics, the pioneering UK-based TechBio platform business applying network science to biology and ICRISAT, an India-headquartered international non-profit organisation that undertakes scientific research for development – collaborate at the intersection of life science and data science to help solve urgent global challenges in food security, nutrition, and agriculture.
Anthony Finbow, Eagle Genomics CEO, said the collaboration with ICRISAT was a natural fit given the innovative and purpose-driven nature of both organisations, to improve the lives of those suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
There is a growing awareness that malnutrition cannot be solved without a robust understanding of the role of the microbiome both in enhancing resilience to climate change but also in enhancing nutrient absorption. This includes ensuring access to safe and healthy food and targeting novel microbial-based solutions to improve nutrition, enhance wellness and reduce disease.
The e[datascientist] is a platform powered by network science1 and multilayer hypergraphs2, applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide a data-driven insight journey into solving complex problems and delivering greater impact in climate resilience, improving plant nutrient density, and increasing data-driven wellness and human health outcomes.
The platform integrates active learning at every step of the microbiome innovation journey, from characterising and describing microbiomes to a better understanding of complex causal mechanisms to elucidating host-microbiome interactions. Eagle Genomics is reinventing life sciences research and development by bridging the ‘translation gap,’ enabling scientific knowledge from a range of disparate sources and data sets to be integrated and analyzed through the e[datascientist] platform to create novel hypotheses and deliver robust, scientifically underpinned practical solutions.
Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General ICRISAT, said the MOU would see ICRISAT share datasets with Eagle Genomics, drawing upon extensive on-the-ground experience in Asia and Africa that had led to several agricultural world firsts. These include developing early maturing groundnut as well as high iron biofortified pearl millet, innovations that have directly responded to the challenges posed by climate change. This new partnership offers an opportunity to address, and even leapfrog beyond, the Sustainable Development Goals to drive science-based targets for regenerative agriculture.
