Original from: Genomeweb

Biomarker discovery firm Sapient said Monday that it has received a $9.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for mass spectrometry-based metabolomic biomarker studies.

The company said it will use much of the grant for studies aimed at identifying metabolic pathways and biomarkers that can inform interventions for health problems disproportionately affecting women and infants in developing countries.

Sapient plans to use its high-throughput mass spec-based metabolomics platform to analyze tens of thousands of samples collected by Gates Foundation grantees.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to continue our exciting collaborations with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and to support the incredible work being done through their grantees to tackle critical global health challenges in underserved populations," Mo Jain, founder and CEO of Sapient, said in a statement. "This grant allows us to perform population-level analyses for a highly unique scale of discovery that amplifies our ability to identify robust, specific small molecule biomarkers of health and disease."

The grant follows a $4.6 million award to Sapient by the Gates Foundation in 2020. The company used that money to fund population-scale metabolomic discovery studies in areas including COVID-19; maternal, newborn, and child health; infectious disease; and hypoxia.

Source: Sapient Receives $9.2M Grant From Gates Foundation for Biomarker Discovery Project