Gut Rhythm (Start-up)

Gut Rhythm R&D (HK) Ltd.
Our start-up company (to be established)

Mission

We provide standardized pre-clinical drug testing platforms and sustainable drug databases to predict drug targets and adverse effects through utilizing bio-electrical signals for drug discovery and safety assessment using artificial intelligence.

Vision

Become a worldwide gold-standard pre-clinical drug safety assessment platform specialized in “electrical” biomarkers
Maintain the continuously growing and sustainable subscription-based drug database resources focus on pre-clinical bio-electrical data
Expand our innovations and expertise on utilizing bio-electrical data in health and disease through worldwide collaborations

Problems to be solved

93.1% failure rate in clinical trials involving investigative drugs and biologics (Wong et al., 2019)
Wasting HK$20.8B per drug trial (Huss, 2016)
Lack pre-clinical safety assessment tools targeting major safety failure
Lack high-quality standardized drug databases for training good AI model
Underutilized bio-electrical big-data resources

Our unique expertise

1 out of 2 lab in the world leading pre-clinical drug-induced emesis research for >30 years
Worked with >30 pharmaceuticals in drug discovery projects
1 out of 2 geographical regions with unique low-cost emetic mode: the Suncus murinus
>80 peer-reviewed scientific articles
Unique expertise in analyzing gut bio-electrical signals
Provisional patent for the drug screening platform
Private unique sustainable drug database (>6,000 datasets and growing) (Aug 2022)

Our team

Professor John Anthony, RUDD

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor

Dr. Julia Yuen Hang, LIU

Co-founder, Director and CEO

Advisory Professional Engineer:
A/Prof. Peng, DU
(The University of Auckland)
Advisory Professional Pharmacologist:
A/Prof. Stella Sze Wa, CHAN
(Caritas Institute of Higher Education)

Other team members:
Dr. Zengbing. LU (Senior Scientist)
Ms. Jessica C.M., HUI (PhD candidate)
Ms. Aleena, KHALID (PhD candidate)
Ms. Lingqing, YANG (PhD candidate)
Ms. Nora Luping, LIU (PhD candidate)
Ms. Kate Zitong, LI (PhD candidate)
Mr. Man Piu NGAN (Lab technical advisor)

Our Technology

Efficient drug screening method (1-3 drugs per drug)
Unique drug database (private, bio-electrical data)
Automatic data analytical pipeline (comprehensive with at least 192 features)
Highly standardized (sustainable and flexible)
Potential application: Predict drug adverse effects and drug-acting receptors/ off-target effects, etc.
Our AI prototype accuracy: 67-80%