SKAN Research Trust, promoted by Indian entrepreneur Ashok Soota, and UK-based Quadram Institute Bioscience have announced that they will apply the cutting-edge TraDIS-Xpress platform to study the action of traditional medical compounds on bacteria, thereby aiding in the reformulation and development of novel antibacterial regimens.

TraDIS-Xpress is Quadram’s proprietary genetic sequencing platform that is in the forefront of efforts to uncover new antimicrobial agents and develop better prebiotics and probiotics for health promotion. 

The joint study titled the Application of TraDIS-Xpress in Microbiology for Healthy Living will be led by Quadram Principal Investigator, Prof.  Mark Webber and SKAN’s Deputy Director, Dr Yogesh Shouche.

The project is part of a larger Comprehensive Partnership Agreement between the two organisations that have ongoing international collaborations focused on gut health and developing gut microbial therapies to alleviate ageing and neurological diseases like Parkinsons.

An important aspect of the international collaboration is sharing the latest technologies in the study of the gut microbiome to augment Indian research capabilities. As part of this study, SKAN researchers will be trained on the TraDIS Xpress platform at the Quadram Institute in Norwich Research Park. This will facilitate the generation of data from large Indian cohorts that will aid in the development of India-specific therapies. Such data generation is also expected to hasten the TraDIS-Xpress platform's development and amplify its applications' scope.

Image caption- Ashok Soota, Chairman & Managing Trustee of SKAN (L) and Prof. Ian Charles, Director of Quadram Institute Bioscience (R)