LifeStrand.AI
- YEAR: 2022
- TEAM: FutureHEALTH: Leisel Juman, Kristian Payne
- STATUS: Active
Unearthing the intelligence of Caribbean biodiversity through AI and Biochemistry to improve our wellness and nutraceuticals
The Challenge:
The curative and preventative applications of traditional medicine within modern healthcare remain unexplored and underutilized. Doctors remain ill-equipped to provide official advice on the use of ancestral herbs and plants, reinforcing the pipeline from clinics to pharmaceuticals. Product development in the cosmeceutical and nutraceutical industries remains in the early stages, with the incorporation of natural ingredients being a trial-and-error experience that directly increases overhead costs. The lack of accessible information on the use of traditional medicines has also contributed to costs as the process of rediscovering this knowledge remains expensive and labour-intensive.
The cost associated with the incorporation of natural alternatives in product development within the nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical space creates a direct barrier to entry within an already underfunded and underserved niche market. R&D generally is known to take a significant amount of time and labour to be scaled and achieve impactful results. People of African descent and the plants which are best positioned to serve them remain overlooked by the R&D ecosystem. In the specific case of Barbados and the wider Caribbean Region, there has been limited exploration of building out a biotech industry with practical application studies and indigenous work staying within academia and a general lack of technological infrastructure.
Ultimately, this provides an opportunity to create a platform that can:
- Collect and manage the genetic information found in the biodiversity of the diaspora including the historical and present use cases.
- Offer solutions to product developers in the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries.
- Offer greater insight into the genetics of the African diaspora as consumers within the nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries.
Our Solution:
The LifeStrand initiative will blend research and practice in an effort to build a biotech industry using endemic knowledge and inputs for global impact. The goal of LifeStrand is to gain insights into our unique genetic identity as a diaspora.
The AI platform is powered by the Digital Phyto Biobank which acts as a knowledge repository and data collection tool to understand use cases by allowing consumers access to various tiers of information. The data available to both free and premium users will range from at-home preventative care to evidence-based curative applications. The platform also offers membership to researchers and academics to allow access to specialized data to catalyze research in this sector. Lifestrand also features the automated chemist, a predictive AI to support the R&D process by providing a virtual testing feature to support In Silico testing to guide the R&D process for product development. The platform in its totality will be supported by data sets that are intentionally diverse featuring traditionally underserved and underexplored genetic segments such as tropical plants and people of African Descent of the diaspora.
