Glyconostics is an animal diagnostics start-up that uses the rapid analysis of sugars attached to proteins and other molecules to achieve better outcomes for the animal health sector. Founded by Stephen Carrington, professor of veterinary anatomy at UCD, Glyconostics aims to help those involved in animal health to better predict health outcomes, intervene earlier in disease progression and address fertility issues in dairy herds.
“We identified animal health, especially dairy cow reproduction, as a prime initial market opportunity with low barriers to entry so we’re starting there,” Carrington says. “Our first product will be a milk-based pregnancy test that can conveniently detect pregnancy in dairy cows twice as early as competing tests, saving farmers many hundreds of euro for each cow in the process.”
Glyconostics is targeting both Irish and international dairy farmers with its launch product. The market potential is significant as current estimates put the number of dairy cows worldwide at about 280 million.
It has taken over 10 years to develop the technology to the point of commercial viability and Carrington estimates the research so far has cost in excess of €1 million. This has come from a range of funding sources, including the European Union and Science Foundation Ireland. Glyconostics has recently participated in the UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme designed to equip researchers with the skills required to lead a new commercial venture.
For the dairy industry in particular Glyconostics’ technology represents a step change in how dairy cow reproduction is managed. “There is no profit without pregnancy and no calf equals no milk equals no profit,” Carrington says.
“But conception rates in dairy cattle have fallen by 35 per cent in the last 50 years. It now takes an average of nearly three cycles to get a cow pregnant. This is fundamentally disruptive to the profitability of dairy enterprises because a calving interval [the time between successive calves] is optimally 365 days, and this is now almost impossible to achieve.
“By using our diagnostic test farmers will know twice as fast if the pregnancy has failed.”
Glyconostics is using the biological sugar code to achieve its superior power in diagnosis. A second team member, Pauline Rudd, professor of glycobiology at UCD and head of a research group in the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, originated the concept and her research showed it had broad potential for biomedical use.
“Like RNA, sugars attached to proteins carry biological instructions in living systems. But this sugar code is orders of magnitude more complex than RNA,” Carrington explains. “However, using robotic analysis, we can rapidly and accurately decode this complexity.”
Glyconostics is in the very early stages of formation and at present those involved are working on its development in their own time. However, Carrington says it should be employing more than 20 within the next five years.
The Glyconostics team also includes Mark Crowe, professor of animal husbandry and reproductive biology at UCD, and experienced SME entrepreneur David McCabe who is an engineer with a particular interest in electronics, robotics, and process automation in industrial settings including biopharma.
“Pauline Rudd has published extensively on the use of protein glycosylation for diagnostic purposes in biomedicine and it has very broad potential applications including immune function, cancer, neurological disease, reproduction, metabolic disease and infection. So the business model is anticipated to be highly scalable,” Carrington says.
Carrington describes Glyconostics’ solution as a paradigm shift. “Existing pregnancy diagnosis is mainly by ultrasound scanning at around day 30 of pregnancy at the earliest and in fact most are done around day 40-45,” he says. “Existing milk tests are in the same time ballpark. Our test would indicate the necessity to re-inseminate at 21 days.”
