SBIR Phase I: Genomics and AI-based biological effect benchmark development for functional ingredients

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响是提高功能性食品和饮料以及膳食补充剂（FFBDS）的一致性。 功能性成分是指具有超出正常营养的益处的成分，如姜黄素（姜黄）、绿色茶和蔓越莓提取物。目前，FFBDS公司在采购批次间质量一致的功能性成分方面面临挑战。测试方法只测量成分的数量而不是质量。该项目提出了一种技术来衡量这些功能成分的有效性。 这些信息使FFBDS制造商能够为购买功能性产品的过程提供清晰度、信任度和易用性。此外，这也可以用于确定特定的健康益处和开发个性化的营养产品。此外，数据还可以为可持续农业、收获、提取和制造实践提供可追溯性和信息。拟议项目将从姜黄开始，利用商业化的人类细胞、基因组学和人工智能技术，开发功能成分纯形式的生物效应基准。 该项目将开发一种测试，以测量化合物的生物有效性与基准相比。该系统将生成该成分的生物效应评分，受影响的关键基因列表，以及这些基因与人类健康相关性的描述。该系统将被开发为高吞吐量，成本效益的操作。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve the consistency of functional food and beverage and dietary supplements (FFBDS). Functional ingredients are ingredients that have benefits beyond normal nutrition, such as curcumin (turmeric), green tea, and cranberry extract. Currently FFBDS companies face challenges in sourcing functional ingredients that are consistent in their quality from batch-to-batch. The testing methods measure only the ingredient quantity and not quality. This project advances a technology to measure the effectiveness of these functional ingredients. This information enables FFBDS manufacturers to provide clarity, trust, and ease to the process of purchasing functional products. Furthermore, this can also be used to identify the specific health benefits and develop personalized nutrition products. In addition, the data can provide traceability and information for sustainable farming, harvesting, extracting, and manufacturing practices.The proposed project will develop biological effect benchmarks for the pure form of functional ingredients, starting with turmeric, using commercially available human cells, genomics, and artificial intelligence technologies. The project will develop a test to measures a compound's biological effectiveness compared to that of the benchmark. The system will generate a biological effect score of the ingredient, a list of key genes affected, and a description of the relevance of these genes on human health. The system will be developed for high-throughput, cost-effective operation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.