A metagenomic-based precision-medicine tool for personalized diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of oral diseases

Introduction

About 20M dental implants are performed globally per year. The implant market, valued at 3.6B in 2020, is growing at a CAGR of 11%. Unfortunately, microbiome-biofilm-associated diseases can affect dental implants, compromising oral and systemic health.

Mucositis and Peri-implantitis

More than 50% of implant patients develop mucositis, an inflammation of the soft tissues, which may lead to peri-implantitis, a severe infection affecting soft and hard tissues that can lead to implant loss. Currently, there are no reliable tools to assess disease severity and risk of disease progression. The dentist can only prescribe empirical therapies without knowing the composition of the triggering peri-implant plaque microbiome.

PreBiomics Solution

At PreBiomics, we developed a precision-medicine test that characterizes the microbial composition of the plaque biofilm collected in the area surrounding the implant. In 10 years of research, we have shown that the presence of specific bacteria is key to predicting the infection's severity and progression.

Project Overview

PreBiomicsPMT will develop a test using metagenomics and an AI algorithm, which will enable the implementation of monitoring and diagnosis and provide treatment recommendations for each patient based on the bacterial composition of their plaque microbiome.

Objectives

Based on the results of the ERC POCs PB3P, this EIC-Transition project aims at:

1. Automating the workflow using a robotic solution to reduce the costs of the service and speed up the results.
2. Building an extensive database that will be used to create an antibiotic resistance panel.
3. Further developing our decision support system (DSS) for dentists.
4. Conducting a validation study to prove the predictive power of our DSS.

Additional Considerations

Alongside the technical development, we will:

• Define the IPR management plan to protect the knowledge we continuously generate.
• Study in-depth the dental implants market and the needs and expectations of our customers and investors.
• Elaborate a robust business plan to allow proper exploitation of our product.