(AFN) Danforth Technology Center launches startup to open new research pathways through metabolite analysis

Researchers are finding more metabolites than anyone realized existed in datasets, but the limitations of existing tools mean we could be missing some critical ones, says Michael Bielski, CEO of newly launched startup Metablify.

Metabolites are small molecules found in cells, tissues and organisms that interact with biological processes; identifying these small molecules could enable more rapid development of everything from cancer drugs to biopesticides.

“Every new metabolite in a sample is potentially a new drug, a new biomarker, something that can enhance crop yields. So every time we miss them, we’re just missing a whole new path of research, potentially,” says Bielski.

With that idea in mind, Metablify officially launched this week out of the Danforth Technology Company (DTC), a subsidiary of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The startup was founded by Danforth Center plant scientists Ivan Baxter, PhD, Allen Hubbard, PhD and Louis Connelly as well as Bielski. Through the Metablify platform, the team hopes to give researchers the ability to sift through the thousands of metabolites that could exist in an experiment using LC/MS data processing algorithms and pinpoint the most important.