A scientist turned entrepreneur from IIT Bombay is democratising molecular technology.

A blood transfusion in India puts a recipient at over 3,000 times higher risk of contracting HIV than one in the US.

The cause? The majority of blood transfusions in our nation use blood units that have undergone ELISA testing rather than the more expensive, highly sensitive NAT (Nucleic Acid Testing), which costs Rs. 1,050 per unit of whole blood. Despite molecular tests' being accessible, their expense inhibits their utilisation.

The goal of Bengaluru-based Algorithmic Biologics is to increase access to this molecular testing gold standard.

The deep-tech business, which was founded last year, is developing algorithms for molecular programming. Its method, which works as a compression algorithm for molecular testing, can be used in synthetic biology, molecular biology research, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, animal husbandry, and food safety.

Dr. Manoj Gopalkrishnan, the creator of Algorithmic Biologics, has been a professor at IIT Bombay and a researcher in the field of molecular computing for about 18 years.

Engineering molecular systems is made possible because of molecular computing. Manoj says, "Molecular testing of DNA, RNA, protein, and other molecules helps us diagnose diseases, assure the safety of food and the environment, find and establish the usefulness of new treatments, and ensure the purity of new seed types."

The startup's "Tapestry" solution already makes COVID-19 screenings on college campuses inexpensive.