#121, Engineering Better Drugs Through Bacterial Intelligence with Nik Sharma & Mo Alomari from BioCorteX

Apr 25, 2025

Nik Sharma, CEO of BioCorteX and clinician scientist, alongside CTO Muhannad Alomari, explores groundbreaking methods to influence drug efficacy through bacterial interactions. They discuss how emerging computational techniques can reshape personalized medicine and drug development. By applying engineering principles from aerospace to biotech, they highlight the significance of microbiome variations in medication responses. Their innovative Carbon Mirror platform showcases advanced modeling in oncology, offering insights for future biotech collaborations and the importance of unique approaches in drug discovery.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Bacteria's Role in Drug Response

Different people respond very differently to medications, influenced by the bacteria they have.
Our evolutionary history with bacteria is key to understanding drug response variance.

INSIGHT

Computational Advantage in Biology

Human biology's complexity combined with bacterial interactions creates an enormous combinatorial problem.
Computational methods uniquely enable exploring this vast space beyond physical lab limitations.

INSIGHT

Engineering Lessons for Pharma

Aerospace engineering's advanced in silico tools inform BioCorteX's approach to drug development.
Pharma lacks these computational design tools, contributing to low drug success rates.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The complex relationship between bacteria and medication efficacy represents one of medicine's most overlooked frontiers. In this episode of the AWS Health Innovation Podcast, Amrita Sarkar, GenAI Leader for Health & Bio at AWS Startups, speaks with Nik Sharma (CEO and Co-Founder) and Muhannad Alomari (CTO and Co-Founder) of BioCorteX. Their groundbreaking work in computational drug-bacteria interaction analysis is reshaping our understanding of personalized medicine and drug development.

What inspired BioCorteX's approach to pharmaceutical development?
- People living with diseases cannot wait. Drawing from tried and tested engineering methodology, BioCorteX applies sophisticated engineering principles to transform drug development success rates by exploring the drug-bacteria interactions. This cross-industry innovation demonstrates how established engineering practices can revolutionize pharmaceutical outcomes.
What role does evolutionary biology play in BioCorteX's research methodology?
- The company's approach is fundamentally built on the fact that mitochondria – the power house of cells – are ex-bacteria. This deep historical connection provides crucial insights into how bacterial interactions influence medication responses across diverse populations.
How does BioCorteX manage the complexity of human-bacterial interactions?
- Understanding biology is one of the most complex tasks that humanity has ever attempted to tackle , with human bacteria interactions that far exceeds the number of stars in our galaxy. Their proprietary Carbon Mirror technology employs advanced emulation technologies to analyze drug-bacteria relationships at an unprecedented scale. This in-silico approach enables the exploration of complex interactions that traditional laboratory methods simply cannot possibly capture.
What makes BioCorteX's data approach unique in pharmaceutical development?
- The Carbon Knowledge platform leverages 15 million samples from 165 different geopolitical regions worldwide, enabling highly accurate drug trial outcome predictions. The scale and geographical breadth of this highly curated data help optimize clinical trials and enhance success rates for pharmaceutical companies.
How does BioCorteX maintain efficiency with a lean team structure?
- Operating with just twelve team members, BioCorteX maintains an strong and radically transparent culture where everyone codes while partnering with major industry players. Their focus on scalable output and revenue generation challenges traditional startup growth models.
What does BioCorteX's future in personalized medicine look like?
- The recent partnership with Tempus demonstrates BioCorteX's commitment to advancing personalized medicine. Their technology platform is positioned to fundamentally change how pharmaceutical companies approach drug development and patient care particularly when moving assets across regions i.e China to Global.

Learn more about BioCorteX at https://BioCorteX.com/

Get in touch with AWS here to learn how we can help your organization accelerate healthcare innovation.

Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the podcast, access our feedback survey here.