Who We Are

AarogyaAI aims to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) using Artificial Intelligence in a few hours. We enable quick and accurate diagnosis of DR-TB so that the patient can be rightly prescribed effective drug combinations for treatment, instantly.

AarogyaAI founders
Praapti Jayaswal and Avlokita Tiwari, Co-Founders of AarogyaAI

Our co-founders, Praapti and Avlokita, are motivated by their life experiences to develop a solution for the growing challenges of DR-TB. Praapti, grew up in a family of doctors and was motivated to address public health issues using her scientific training in infectious diseases. Avlokita, lost her grandmother to tuberculosis and wanted to be a part of the solution working towards eliminating this disease.

In India today, Tuberculosis affects 2.7 million people each year, and thousands of people die because of it. However, there is a disproportionate focus on solving micro problems in research which, do not translate into public application. Our aim is to bridge that gap.

We are greatly inspired by Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at WHO and a tuberculosis physician. Dr.Swaminathan took a keen interest in our objectives and, is our mentor on this journey.

What We Do

Tuberculosis claims more lives every year than AIDS. This is because, of the 19 anti-TB drugs available, doctors don’t always know which ones will work for whom. Thus, even though tuberculosis is curable, a delayed diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis can mean patients are on ineffective medication for up to 7 years.

Currently, there are no tools to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis quickly and comprehensively. AarogyaAI aims to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis in a few hours so that a patient can be prescribed effective treatment, instantly. We use a DNA sequence from the patient which is uploaded to our SaaS. Our machine learning algorithm then gives an output report of a comprehensive drug susceptibility status of the patient.

In the long run, we will be able to predict the patterns of evolution of the bacteria and future drug resistance patterns. Our data analytics dashboard will provide valuable insight into bacterial phylogeny, its geographical influences amongst other statistics. This would greatly benefit public health programs in strategically placing PHCs as well as pharma companies to improve supply chain logistics and drug development.

 

Team

Praapti Jayaswal

Dr. Praapti Jayaswal (Co-Founder & CEO), is a PhD in tuberculosis research from the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), in New Delhi. Her expertise is in microbiology and understanding the biology of the disease.

Avlokita Tiwari

Ms. Avlokita Tiwari (Co-Founder & CTO), has an MS in Bioinformatics from the University of Turku, Finland. Her expertise lies in computational biology and genomic data. She is the bridge between the biology and the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning.

Smita Hingane

Dr. Smita Hingane (R&D Lead), has a PhD in infectious disease virology from the THSTI, India. Her expertise lies in infectious diseases. With years of experience in molecular and microbiology, she is leading the in-house R&D for scaling AarogyaAI’s novel diagnostic technologies.

News

We’ve been in the news a few times and are excited to share it with you.

Illumina Accelerator Welcomes First Global Cohort of Genomics Startups

llumina, Inc. has selected seven early-stage companies to join the first global cohort of Illumina Accelerator, the company creation engine focused on partnering with entrepreneurs to build breakthrough genomics startups. Three companies comprise the inaugural funding cycle of Illumina Accelerator Cambridge, UK and four companies will join as part of the 11th funding cycle in the San Francisco Bay Area. AarogyaAI is one of the four comanies to be part of the San Francisco Bay Cohort

Read More About the Program

AarogyaAI won the BIRAC TiE WInER Award

In March 2020, AarogyaAI won the BIRAC TiE WInER Award. The award is given to Women in Entrepreneurial Research by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). BIRAC was set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India with a vision to foster and enhance research and innovation capabilities of the Indian biotech industry. Here’s a link to the Award

Express Check-Up

AargyaAI has developed a time and cost-
effective test for the drug-resistant disease, and now one can get a report in just five hours.

Read the Article

Entrepreneur First unveils largest cohort of deep-tech startups

Deep-tech investor Entrepreneur First (EF) completed its fifth Investor Day in Singapore that saw participation from 24 deep-tech companies from around Asia. It is EF’s largest cohort of startups so far. Read the Article

Meet a Few of the World’s Most Talented Women

Pitching for AarogyaAI was Praapti Jayaswal, who did her PhD in tuberculosis research and her co-founder, Avlokita Tiwari, a computational biologist, with an MS in Bioinformatics.  Read the Article

Meet the Deep Tech Startups of Entrepreneur First’s Indian Cohort

PhD-holder Praapti Jayasawal and Computational Biologist Avlokita Tiwari have built an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled SaaS (Software as a Service) that diagnoses drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and enable effective treatment, instantly. Read the Article

AarogyaAI was awarded the Best Pitch by the  Shakti – The Empathy Project

In October 2019, the team at AarogyaAI was awarded the Best Pitch by Shakti – The Empathy Project. This is India’s first program for women social entrepreneurs working towards finding solutions to social problems in India. The program’s core focus is on providing capacity building, mentorship, funding and networking opportunities for the entrepreneur.