Karius

American health tech company Karius was created to redefine the way infectious diseases are diagnosed, simultaneously making the process less invasive, timely, and more accurate.

It uses AI technology to identify microbial DNA in blood samples to determine which pathogens are likely driving disease—known as genomic testing— and helping clinicians diagnose life-threatening infections.

Alec Ford, CEO at Karius, sat down with us to talk about how this genomic testing technology is revolutionizing patient care for the immunocompromised community.

What is Karius setting out to achieve?

We envision a world where infectious disease is no longer a major threat to human health. We are helping to achieve that with the Karius Test. It gives us unprecedented insight into a patient’s microbial landscape from a single blood sample.

Our primary focus today is on the immunocompromised community, with good reason. These people are far more susceptible to infectious disease than others, such as people with cancer going through chemotherapy. For example, in certain cancers, studies have shown that up to 50% of deaths are attributed to infections. This can be attributed partly to the limitations of traditional diagnostic tests which can be invasive and do not always give actionable results and so they put patients at risk of complications. This is a huge issue. Our test helps to dramatically improve the diagnosis of infections, so doctors know what they’re treating and are able to save lives.

What are you doing that is so unique?

Our test has an advantage over other diagnostic tests because of what it looks at, genomics. We look deep into microbial cell-free DNA found in the blood. It’s similar to cancer detection where traces of tumor cell-free DNA are captured and analyzed from a blood sample. This type of testing is called a liquid biopsy.

Our main innovation is our ability to extract information from microbial DNA in the bloodstream from a very faint signal— we pick up signals that are up to one thousand times less abundant than those in the cancer detection tests we mentioned. We use a series of machine learning algorithms to identify and interpret the cell-free DNA signal, so that we can both tell which microbes are found in each sample, and highlight those which are most likely to be related to the disease. Doctors can then use that data to make better informed diagnoses and therefore improve results for patients.

How does AI help?

Our AI technology lets us find the root cause of an infection from a database of over 1,000 pathogens and return results the day after we receive the sample. We draw 20 million data points for each patient and match those against a vast clinical-grade genomic reference database.

Once we have those microbial detections, we still need to determine which ones are most likely to be related to a focused infection. We might have identified ten possible problems, but that won’t help the doctor, they need us to identify which is most likely to be causing the issue. Our AI is able to narrow it down. It goes beyond telling you what you can see through this DNA ‘microscope’ and provides our physicians with the information they need most. It draws not only on our proprietary databases but also medical literature and on-going studies and uses all that data to help highlight which pathogen is most likely causing an infection, so the doctors can take action against it.

In your time at Karius, what is it that you are most proud of?

There are two things that I am most proud of: the difference we’re making in patients’ lives and the growth of our organization as a whole.

First and foremost, though, is our impact on patients’ lives. There is nothing better than getting calls from doctors telling us how relieved their patients are that they’ve got the right diagnosis and that it has been done without the sort of invasive intervention that is otherwise needed. This is especially true given we work in an area where the mortality rate is so high.

Secondly, I’m proud of the growth we’ve experienced in my time, not least because it means better care for more patients. We’ve gone from 40 employees to 180, grown testing by over 40% year-over-year, exceeded top-line and bottom-line targets and have the opportunity to be the fastest molecular diagnostic company to achieve cash flow break-even. And we’ve achieved all those things in tough market conditions and a pandemic. During this period of growth, we’ve never lost focus on who we’re helping. We could have easily been distracted given we have a test that can identify over 1,000 potential pathogens causing disease. It takes a whole organization of people to make these things happen, and I couldn’t be more pleased with what our team has achieved – for ourselves and for our patients.

You mentioned earlier you envision a world where infectious diseases aren’t a major threat to human life. What role does Karius have to play in helping society to reach that reality?

Over the last decade or so, our community has come to appreciate the significant value that minimally-invasive microbial surveying across the body can generate. We’re part of a greater movement that is unlocking this liquid biopsy technology, towards a full body scan searching for all infectious diseases. We, as a community, are making great progress already, which is a fantastic thing for patient care and for the quality of the patient care experience.

When we can get a clear picture of what’s going on inside the body by looking at underlying biology. We understand a fuller picture of health. It makes it far easier to accurately diagnose and treat any issues, eliminating infectious disease as a serious threat to human health.

In a future dominated by access to increasingly complex data, the only way to analyze and understand it is through AI. We’re grateful to be leading the field in microbial cell-free DNA through our innovative technology and remain committed to maximizing the potential of this unique data stream for the benefit of our doctors and, more importantly, the patients they serve.

How do you see the advancements Karius is making, with the help of AI, contributing to a happier society?

I think the interconnections between health and happiness are relatively clear, they go hand in hand, so contributing to improvements in health should also improve happiness.

Our work helps to define what is causing disease with a high degree of confidence, leading to better care outcomes. Additionally, our current diagnosis technology is far less invasive than some conventional tests. So, we are helping to improve both patient care and outcomes.

In the future, we will move our AI closer to human biology, training it on what is happening inside the body. This will allow for even faster, more accurate diagnoses. We’re imagining a future where you can provide a sample from the convenience of your home and then receive results and advice from your doctor through an app almost instantly. That’s the future of AI, getting people the healthcare and advice they need faster than ever, at the highest available quality, and without invasive procedures. It will give both physicians and patients more confidence in their care, and ultimately empower patients to take more control over their own treatment, leading to healthier and happier lives.