STARTUP NOOK

By Rajesh Ghadge Images by Rajesh Ghadge

ROSHAN NAIK

EXPERIMENTING WITH RAPID BACTERIAL DIAGNOSIS

Roshan Naik, currently incubating at the FiiRE Incubator with his startup idea, grew up in Ponda and did his schooling at A.J. De Almeida High School and GVM’ s SNJA higher secondary school. Further, he studied Chemistry and Biotechnology during his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Goa University. After a 2 year stint in the food and beverage industry as a process officer, he went to Germany to pursue his PhD at Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry/Ludwig

Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. During his PhD, he characterized the molecular mechanism of novel drug targets in preclinical models of anxiety and major depression. Subsequently, followed it with postdoctoral training in Germany, France and Singapore. During his time in Singapore, he completed a 4-month Bioentrepreneurship certificate course at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore where he learnt about various stages involved in biotechnology and healthcare-related startups. He also had the opportunity to attend several startup competitions at various stages of development which gave him the confidence to pursue his own entrepreneurship aspirations. He has a PhD in biology from Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry/Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany and has completed a Bioentrepreneurship certificate course at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. During the pandemic, personal hygiene became essential everywhere but at the same time, frequent use of disinfectants is associated with an increase in the incidence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) bacteria. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one such AMR bacteria which are hard to treat in clinics due to its resistance to most of the commonly prescribed antibiotics or inappropriate use of antibiotics leading to lifethreatening conditions. “We at Diagopreutic Private Limited work on rapid bacterial diagnosis within the same day unlike 2-3 days currently undertaken and can help reduce undesirable side-effects and targeted treatment approaches. Indian Network for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (INSAR) reported a Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevalence rate of 41% based on data from 15 tertiary care centres (National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (NAP-AMR) 2017 –2021, Government of India). Treating MRSA is the top ten priority area for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. I initially got interested in S. aureus bacteria, ” he said. “After successfully completing the GSIC prototyping grant work, I applied for the GSIC Ideathon event where I presented my idea related to rapid diagnosis of MethicillinResistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and I won the second prize in this competition in December 2021. This bolstered my confidence and I successfully applied and was selected for the Nidhi-Prayas grant (up to 10 lakhs) incubated at FiiRE, Fatorda, Goa to develop the prototype. During my work in the last 6 months, under the guidance of my mentor Mr Kishor Shah and various sessions related to startups organized by FiiRE, I have made steady progress on my prototype developments. I have also submitted a provisional patent application for differential bacterial diagnosis based on visual colour change using a proprietary media formulation, ” he added. Speaking about the challenges he said “Some of the work required dedicated space and lab setup which we managed by either renting out space or doing the work on a pay basis in dedicated labs. ” “I was attending a science fest in Panjim in March 2021 where Goa State Innovation Council (GSIC) had an exhibition on various activities organized by them and grants available to individuals and startups. Soon after I started attending online meetings and workshops organized by GSIC related to

funding, prototyping, and patent filing which was very useful. I also applied and was selected for a prototyping grant to convert excessive nitrate which is toxic to human and animal health and convert it to nitrogen gas using microorganisms. Excessive nitrate in water is harmful to health and we have previously examined it in the Saipem ward in the Candolim area (Naik and Phadke 2022) to probe the potential cause of water pollution, ” he explained. “While working on this project, I examined the potential of several microorganisms to convert toxic nitrate to nontoxic byproducts, amongst which Staphylococcus aureus caught my attention as it is a major hospital-acquired pathogen that can cause pneumonia, bloodstream, urinary or surgical site infections. Interestingly, the same nitrate detection can be adapted for their rapid differential diagnosis and this work has been submitted for provisional patent filing by our company (Diagopreutic Private Limited). Overall, there was a similar biochemical process that could be harnessed to either treat toxic nitrate in water or rapid differential diagnosis of infections, ” he added. Speaking about the future plans he said, “Diagopreutic aims to be a market leader in diagnosis and prognosis of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We will provide accurate, reproducible diagnostic and prognostic tools to government and private labs globally, through the use of our innovative solutions. ” “I would recommend attending events either physically or at least in online mode whenever possible as many events are recorded these days. In the startup world, one can take various different roles, either in regulatory affairs, patent filing, marketing, quality controls or lab work. You will acquire new knowledge to understand the various aspects of the startup world and give your best shot.

Reference: Naik RR, Phadke MR. (2022). High Levels of Nitrate in Well Waters of Saipem Ward, Candolim, Goa. In: Ashish, D.K., de Brito, J. (eds) Environmental Concerns and Remediation. Springer, Cham. First and Corresponding Author, ” he concluded.

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