Vanderbilt signs license agreement with student startup Metalytics LLC

Pictured left to right: Alan Bentley, Ashok Choudhury, Chris Harris, Masood Machingal; front: Lara Jazmin

Vanderbilt University signed a license agreement with Metalytics LLC, a startup company dedicated to commercializing metabolic pathway analytics. Metalytics LLC (formerly known as MetaMap Bioworks LLC) was formed by Lara Jazmin, a recent graduate of the chemical engineering PhD program and Vanderbilt Associate Professor Jamey Young, the principal author of the INCA software.  The deal gives Metalytics the right to explore the commercial possibility of the INCA software that enables metabolic flux analysis.

 

INCA software allows for the determination of biochemical reaction rates inside living cells, which are otherwise impossible to measure directly. Similar to how Google Maps reports traffic flows within highway networks, INCA can identify cellular pathway bottlenecks (roadblocks) and wasteful metabolic processes (detours) within biochemical networks. This information can be used to engineer improved production systems (e.g., host organisms and/or cultivation platforms) for use in industrial bioprocesses or agriculture. In 2015, the Metalytics team was selected by National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Innovation Corps program. The team also won the Fishbowl Fights pitch competition hosted by the Association of University Technology Managers that year.