The Mathematician CEO Unlocking the Microbiome
A startup was created from a love of math, bees, and the microbiome.
By Susannah Williams
From France to UK Ghjuvan Grimaud been welcomed into the RebelBio ranks, we are excited to have the CEO of Biomathematica, becoming part of our portfolio of RebelBio Cohort VI companies.
“Initially I wanted to stay in academia, but in France it is so hard to become a full time masochist with a low salary,” Ghjuvan begins. “There is a high risk in start up, but when you believe what you are doing is right, the perspective of building it from scratch is highly motivating.”
Ghjuvan didn’t have fulfillment prior to his startup, but his previous work at Michigan State University, Kellogg Biological Station gave him the acorn that would grow into the Oak—in the form of a bee. He worked on the bee gut microbiota, which comprises of only eight species of bacteria, however, these eight are obligate partners. This means that if this bee’s microbiome is not present to break down sugar as the bee feeds, the bee dies. This is a contributing factor to the global bee crisis.
We can understand why the microbiome is essential for the bee. And for the human? We have 1K bacteria compared to the bee’s eight. How on Earth can we make sense of the changing microbiome relationship with humans? Maths!
“We are a giant symbiote”, Ghjuvan explains. “I really think maths is the only way to understand life, to understand this highly complex system that is reacting with thousands of different metabolites.”
Ghjuvan, with his maths degree, set about putting all the necessary mathematical simulations and modeling into his start up, Biomathematica. This startup allows research facilities and pharma to simulate normal to diseased gut microbiomes, such as Crohn’s and irritable bowel syndrome, to find out if their drug/probiotic/etc can impact on it in a meaningful way.
There have already been links from the gut to the brain, and in the coming decades having a better understanding of how our microbiome works and what effects it can have a major impact on our health and the aging population. Ghjuvan, with his co-founder Sebastian, are completely committed to Biomathematica, having already come a long way as their tech contributes to our knowledge on the microbiome. We’ll all be better off for it.
Previous CEO profile: Jonathan O’Keefe (Parkinson’s disease and objectivity)
Next CEO profile: Joe Miller (breathing a sigh of relief for sinusitis)
Cohort VI of the RebelBio accelerator is taking place in Imperial College White City Incubator, London. They are also supported by Capital Enterprise & ERDF.
Companies or prospective entrepreneurs who would like to avail of funding, mentorship & support for early-stage life sciences they can apply or show their interest here.
