Harry Massey is a Bioenergetic expert and speaker, founder of NES Health, CEO of Energy4Life, and Chairman of XPO Health (xpo.health). He has published multiple books and has directed several documentary films – including the award-winning film “The Living Matrix” – to educate and inspire the general public about bioenergetics and bio-informational approaches to health and well-being.

Having overcome serious illness in his youth, Harry founded NES Health in 2002. The company is dedicated to fostering a 21st-century system of healthcare based on the integration of physics and biology. Harry has created several cutting-edge technologies including BioEnergetiX, the world’s first practical clinical system for reading and correcting the body’s energetic field. He continues to innovate cutting-edge technologies that have made him the world’s leader in bioenergetic medicine.

Ronan talks to Harry about his interesting backstory, founding NES Health, how the pandemic impacted NES Health and its clients, his latest start-up/ and more.

More about Harry Massey:

Harry Massey is an entrepreneur with a very interesting backstory. He spent nearly 10 years suffering from severe chronic fatigue syndrome. His troubles began when he was 21-years-old and was ice climbing on Ben Nevis in Scotland. There he was a few hundred meters up, when he carefully placed his ice pick above himself, made his move and then the ice shattered.

He fell backwards about 30 feet but somehowI managed to get his ice pick to bite into the steep slope, stopping him falling further. However he had landed on his back. Shaken and in pain, he staggered to his feet and as nothing seemed broken, he kept climbing. Harry later learn that he had fractured his spine. He was lucky to be alive, but instead of resting and recovering, he mismanaged his energy. He kept pushing until he had nothing left to give. This resulted in 7 long years been bedridden with severe chronic fatigue syndrome that no Western medical or alternative health practitioner could cure.

Through his own research, he stumbled onto bioenergetics, the study of energy in living systems, and reached out to the late Peter Fraser, a visionary scientific thinker, researcher, and leading professor in the field. Professor Fraser had spent more than 20 years researching and developing remedies to detect and correct energy in the body. He quickly became Professor Fraser’s “guinea pig” testing protocols and treatments.

It took two long years, but thanks to Professor Fraser’s work, he restored his energy and reclaimed his life. What started as a deeply personal journey to regain his energy for life quickly transformed into his life’s mission: to help people learn how to better manage their physical and emotional energy so they can regain their energy for life. After co-founding his first company, NES Health and starting and leading other companies, he launched Energy4Life.

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Sam Williams is co-founder and CEO of Arweave, a blockchain protocol allowing us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. Pete Townsend interviewed Sam last month on the Techstars GiveFirst podcast, so thanks to David Cohen and Techstars for letting us share the interview for this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps.

In this episode, Sam shares the inspirational story of how Arweave got started, their life-changing experience with Techstars Berlin in 2018, and how their long-term vision, hope, and resilience have been the foundation of their successes to date.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Sam Williams on solving problems:

“There are all these global problems, and you are never gonna solve them if you just go like, okay, I’m gonna solve the whole thing. That’s not gonna happen for any human on earth right now. But what might happen is if you look at the problem and say, okay, well that’s a small chunk that, actually, I happen to be skilled to solve. Well, maybe I could do that. And so I did.”

Sam Williams on his inspiration for Arweave:

“I was walking up this mountain and came up with this idea of, okay, well one of the problems with authoritarian regimes is that they always try to bend the perception of the past. George Orwell had a good explanation for this. He said, ‘the person that controls the present controls the past.

“The person that controls the past controls the future.’ What he really means is by controlling the way that people think about the world around them – and that a lot of it comes from the context that we think about the world that is the past – we can control the way that they act in the future.

“I said ‘ha!’, well, I see a nugget of a solution to that. What if we take blockchains, which are essentially hyper-resilient, decentralized databases of information, and we fill them with records of the past. So you replicate the records of the past in so many countries across the world that they just can’t possibly be lost.”

Sam Williams on what he shares with new founders on the foundation of Arweave’s successes to date:

“The message I try and give new founders if they’re thinking about going through this is, well, just be resilient. Just keep doing your thing. No matter whether it’s raining or shining outside, it really shouldn’t matter to you. To be honest, the market is gonna have crazy, crazy things happen. It’s not a sane thing to be around, in my experience, particularly in crypto, it’s so, so volatile, and my hope is that over time it becomes less volatile.

“But for what it is right now, you’ve gotta be realistic. The market’s gonna be overly excited sometimes, and super under-excited other times. And so the best kind of wisdom I’ve picked up along the way is ‘just be robustly resilient’. Just focus on the things that you actually think will matter in five years, not the things that people are shouting about, like pumping the token price or whatever.

“Just focus on the long term, and it does pay off. At the beginning of 2020, we must have been pushing about 500 to a thousand transactions to Arweave a day. By the end of 2021, that was up to about 5 million. And our approach has not changed one iota from day one.”

LINKS:

Learn more about Sam Williams and follow Sam on Twitter

Learn more about Arweave and follow Arweave on Twitter

Episode title inspired by ‘Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)’ by Nas

Episode artwork courtesy of DALL-E 2

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Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and get in touch via [email protected]

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Guest post by Dusan Stojanovic, Kelly Choo, Frank Desvignes, Fredrik Adolfsson, Beatrice Lion, True Global Ventures General Partners

In 2018, we, at True Global Ventures, went out and communicated 4 megatrends in Web 3. One of them was blockchain gaming/metaverse and we got that one 100% right. Between 2018 and 2022, Companies like Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, The Sandbox and Decentraland had spectacular growth.

Two other megatrends were blockchain financial services and blockchain infrastructure, which we got partly right and the last one, blockchain and AI, we got wrong.

Five Web3 megatrends for 2023

Like in 2018, 2022 started with a very bullish market but ended in a bear market. The difference being that in 2022, not only was the Web3 market affected but also the entire tech sector. The Web3 market was especially hit during Q2-Q4 of 2022 and even if 2023 has started positively for the first 2 weeks, the real question is what will 2023 look like?

Now, we have again, like in 2018, listened to what is going on in the 15 countries we are covering, across Asia, North America and Europe, to give sharp megatrends which stick out in 2023 !

Our objective is not to get all of them right but to be bold and take some risks on the megatrends and we are confident we will get some of them right.

Trend #1 – Buying secondaries shares in 2022’s Winners is going to be way more attractive in 2023

The companies that emerged as winners in 2022 will grow stronger in 2023. We believe that investing in secondary shares of these later-stage companies, or buying from shareholders who are in distress, gives investors a unique opportunity to find good value. Now is the time to search out these opportunities, to find the companies doing the work today that will help grow the industry tomorrow.

2022’s Web3 winning unicorns are going to be stronger than ever. In every crisis, we see companies dying giving market shares to survivors and winners consolidating the industry by doing M&As with discounted valuation. Unicorns becoming stronger and better prepared for IPOs.

Web3 market leaders will help to sustain the entire ecosystem and as a result, it will form a much stronger community as opposed to Web2 where the market leader takes it all. This is the reason why we see Web3 winners appearing much stronger than the Web2 ones.

Trend #2 – Centralisation is Dead. Decentralisation is more than back!

We believe that 3 decentralisation winners for 2023 are: Self-custody, DeFi and Bitcoin.

Continued uncertainty after the Luna Crash as well as the FTX crash and especially the lack of transparency surrounding both crashes has provoked short term flight to self-custody.

Companies in the hard wallet sector like Ledger and Trezor benefited short term as well as other secure custody solutions with up to 300% growth during Q3.

“Not your keys not your coins” has been a slogan for a long time. We believe that this is not just a short-term trend, but a megatrend for the next 5 years, especially for 2023.

In the long term view, we believe some of the current hard wallets will evolve further in terms of user experience and also that some of them will stay for the foreseeable future for certain clients.

Do we believe that centralised custody can survive? Yes, but it will need to adapt since transparency will be key. Also, technology stemming from self-custody will be adapted and used by centralised custody.

The heart of DeFi is Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), protocols and projects like MakerDAO. The investors who have not lost in the Three Arrows Capital (3AC) saga invested through Smart Contract-based solutions with collateral. With collapse of non-transparent, centralized organizations, real DeFi ventures shall shine.

The best use case for blockchain is by no doubt bitcoin. We believe that this oldest use case of decentralisation will be one of the biggest winners during 2023. What we have seen in the beginning of 2023 is just a start with bitcoin gaining ...

The futures is here and most agree that for the medium term it will include a mix of payment options. The Chairman of the Digital Euro Association. Dr. Jonas Gross shares perspectives on the current focus of the Digital Euro design which is under consideration (not development). Our discussion takes interesting twists and turns.

The Digital Euro, what to look out for, insights with Jonas Gross

Dr. Jonas Gross is Chairman of the Digital Euro Association (DEA) and Chief Operating Officer at etonec. Jonas holds a PhD in economics from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. His main fields of interest are central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and monetary policy. Further, Jonas is co-host of the German podcast “Bitcoin, Fiat, & Rock’n’ Roll”, external lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, and member of the expert panel of the European Blockchain Observatory and Forum. Website: www.jonasgross.info

Dr. Efi Pylarinou is the No.1 Global Woman Influencer in Finance & the Data conversation by Refinitiv, a Top Thought Leader by Onalytica, and a Top Digital Futurist, Linkedin and Twitter Voice, by Engatica.

A seasoned Wall Street professional & a recognized technology thought leader on innovation topics. Founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory servicing Big Tech, Financial Services and Fintech clients. She strongly believes in building bridges between the old and the new economy. She shares her passion of content creation with her 190,000+ followers on Linkedin and 18,000+ on Twitter. Join her on the social platforms

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Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

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The term “metaverse” was first introduced in a fiction novel written in 1992. While Neal Stephenson’s vision of the metaverse was far ahead of its time, today’s technologies are finally catching up to his predictions.

In this guide, we’ll look at the metaverse and what makes it different from other virtual worlds out there today. We’ll also explore how this technology has evolved as well as who participates in these virtual worlds with greater and in-depth detail so that you have the complete picture. Our hope is that you will have complete information about the metaverse by the end of this guide. Without further ado, let’s take a quantum leap into the metaverse.

What is the Metaverse?

The metaverse is a virtual reality environment. It can be considered a “world” where users talk with each other and other objects in a shared space. A metaverse is open and persistent, meaning anyone who has access to it will see the same things from their perspective—the only exception is if you’re using an avatar masking system.

A metaverse can be used as an interactive social platform with real-time communication and currency systems similar to our world today. However, these are all owned by the users rather than corporations or governments, who might have control over them.

In this future, people will be able to use their smartphones or other devices to enter this digital world to travel anywhere in the world or the universe. This will allow people to create new realities and share them with others.

What Types of Metaverse Exist?

There are multiple metaverse platforms. These platforms are defined by their features and capabilities. For example, Second Life is one type of metaverse platform; it allows users to create digital versions of themselves that can participate in various activities such as shopping or watching movies together.

Another metaverse platform is High Fidelity. It allows users to create highly realistic avatars and customize them with clothing items or accessories (such as glasses). There are many more types of metaverse platforms out there; some have been around for years, while others are still being developed today.

What Differentiates Metaverse from Other Virtual Worlds?

In Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, the protagonist lives in a world called the “Metaverse.” This is the first known use-case of the term and Stephenson describes it as a virtual reality or artificial universe accessible through any computer terminal.

A metaverse is something more than a typical virtual world. It has its own rules, its own architecture, and its own ecosystem. This means that there are some things in common between these different types of virtual worlds. For example, many people use these platforms to socialize. However, each has its unique features and functionality.

The metaverse is much more immersive and interactive than other virtual worlds. Time moves differently in a metaverse than in other virtual worlds. In other virtual worlds, users can only visit the same virtual space repeatedly; however, in the metaverse, users can move around within that space, allowing for more interaction between users.

Metaverses are often used for educational purposes because they allow students to explore different aspects of science and technology using high-tech tools. However, some people also use them for entertainment purposes, like watching movies or playing video games.

Who Participates in a Metaverse?

Metaverse participants come from all over the world, including countries such as the United States, France, Germany, China, and India. In addition to different nationalities, they also include people from all walks of life: engineers and programmers; graphic designers and 3D artists; actors and musicians; medical professionals and teachers—the list goes on. The only thing they have in common is that they want to explore this new technology with others who share the same interest.

The age range for participation spans a wide spectrum, ...

Guest Post by David Stephen

Fluid intelligence (Gf) is defined “as reasoning ability, and the ability to generate, transform, and manipulate different types of novel information in real time”. Crystalized intelligence (Gc) is described as “the knowledge of the culture that is incorporated by individuals through a process of acculturation. It is typically described as a person’s breadth and depth of acquired knowledge of the language, information and concepts.” The intelligence quotient (IQ) is defined “as a comparison between what is normal for a certain age and what is observed in a specific child.”

Brain Science: How the Mind Falsifies IQ, Fluid & Crystalized Intelligence

Intelligence w.r.t Education

What seems obvious about these measures of human intelligence is mostly how relative they are to an education. Those without an education or those who did not go through the academic path seem excluded. Aside from the measure, IQ is also thrown around outcomes. There are people who outperform others or excel in certain things that are tagged high IQ, even when their scores are not known.

There are lots of extrapolations around heritable intelligence, reasoning ability, giftedness, determinations at conception, smart fraction theory of intelligence and so forth. The first question that no one seems to ask is where does intelligence come from? The simple answer is the brain, but where in the brain? The brain as a biological organ or something else?

Intelligence comes from the mind. The mind is within the brain. Now, what is the structure of the human mind and how does it function? What components of it represent intelligence? Establishing what intelligence is, without understanding the mind, as the source, is flawed.

The same way it is not possible to measure trauma, anxiety, depression or other states of mind, is the same way that at a basic level, it is not possible to measure intelligence. The mind does not work out whatever is known separately from what is felt, it subsumes everything it does around a similar mechanism—for uniformity.

Not knowing the mind or its process but asserting intelligence is like getting data on automobiles by the roads they travel on or in what weather, which may give some clue, but will not reveal the principal mechanism that makes the automobile possible. Or, more naturally, to say the sun and other planets rotate around the earth, because we are on earth, rather than to seek out the mechanism of gravitation.

So, IQ, Gf, Gc and whatever other theory or assumptions of intelligence are inaccurate. They measure a restricted subset assuming it to be totalized, misleading many, without noticing what should be obvious: intelligence is the mind and there is no way to measure it, without calibrating the mind—directly. Tests as the standard to pass or fail subjects—or for narrow purposes are fine, but tests to measure intelligence, without knowing how the mind works, are false.

There are several comparisons of intelligence to athletic abilities, like being good at basketball requires height, or being excellent at sprint, because it is genetic.

Not really. Though the mind controls motor skills, dexterity does not work the way “intelligence” works. Also, excellence at basketball or athletics is to the competitive standard, not to any relative standard. If the elevation of the hoop was adjusted for people of certain heights, or the shape of the track were adjusted, what it means to be good at those would also be different.

There are also too many situational and additional matches that make those who emerge as the best do, rather than simply for natural ability. Slight adjustments in their journey could have resulted in a totally different outcome.

In general, most of what is described as “intelligence” is related to what is known or produced from what is known. Whatever is known is the memory. The memory is a fragment of mind. So how does the memory work in the mind, or how does the mind work to determine w...

Storm Technology and Orchestry announce their strategic partnership to drive client success with Microsoft 365.

Storm Technology, a leading Irish provider business technology consultancy services that focuses on driving client success through meaningful technology change, will strengthen governance, adoption, and productivity in Microsoft 365 with Orchestry.

Orchestry is a complete empowerment, adoption and standardisation platform, built by Microsoft 365 MVPs for IT Administrators with Microsoft 365 end-users in mind. Orchestry is on a mission to make work simple through Microsoft 365, by empowering users, driving adoption, automating governance, and through day-to-day management and security. The Orchestry platform takes the guesswork out of what to use and when in Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) with pre-built Workspace Templates, intelligent Workspace Provisioning, actionable Workspace Insights, robust Microsoft 365 Guest management, informative Workspace Directory and robust governance features to enable both IT administrators and end-users throughout the organisation.

More than just a standard templating and governance tool for Microsoft Teams, Orchestry’s comprehensive platform will enable Storm Technology to support clients with governance in SharePoint Online, Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft OneNote as well as other Microsoft 365 business applications through a single, unified interface. Michal Pisarek, CEO of Orchestry, said: “After knowing and collaborating with the team at Storm Technology for years, I’m elated to announce our partnership to empower clients to standardise governance, provisioning and templating in Microsoft 365”.

Conall O’Kane, Modern Workplace Practice Manager, Storm Technology, adds: “We are committed to partnering with the very best and brightest in the Microsoft ecosystem and are delighted to announce our recent partnership with Orchestry. This new partnership will further enhance our service offering, delivering comprehensive lifecycle management in Microsoft 365 while simplifying governance and management of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 for our clients,” In partnership, Storm Technology and Orchestry, helps organisations drive enablement, adoption and standardisation while enhancing integrity and governance of Microsoft 365.

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IrishJobs.ie has today published the results of its latest quarterly Jobs Index, which reveals a strong but cooling jobs market as the number of vacancies eased on a yearly and quarterly basis. However, notwithstanding these yearly and quarterly declines, the volume of job vacancies generated in Q4 was still almost a third (28%) higher than pre-Covid levels, with a competitive recruitment landscape set to continue into 2023.

Following the job highs of last year, this latest Index continues the change of pace seen in Q3, with job vacancies in Q4 decreasing by 11% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and -13% quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q).

Orla Moran, General Manager, IrishJobs.ie, said: “Ireland’s job market enters 2023 in a strong position with the number of job vacancies in Ireland overall almost a third higher than pre-pandemic levels. The adjustment in the market that we saw begin in Q3 continued into Q4. However, it’s worth pointing out that the final quarter of every year would traditionally be a time when recruitment activity eases back. The high number of jobs available combined with the current 20-year low in unemployment means the competitive recruitment landscape is set to continue in the year ahead.”

Industry Analysis

Of the 39 sectors analysed in this quarter’s Index, nine have posted year-on-year increases in job vacancy creation, while just five sectors have posted quarterly gains.

Security (+73% Y-o-Y), Customer Services (+18% Y-o-Y), Media (+7% Y-o-Y) and Health (+5% Y-o-Y) have increased or remained stable both in year-on-year and quarterly terms.

Meanwhile, five sectors have increased in annual terms but posted quarterly declines. These include Insurance, which saw a 55% increase year-on-year but a quarterly decline of 11%. Jobs in Construction were up by 10% year-on-year and down by 5% quarter-on-quarter, while Legal saw a year-on-year increase of 8% and a quarterly decrease of 6%.

The impact of recessionary fears and spiralling energy costs can be seen in sectors closely aligned with the domestic economy. These include Travel, which saw job vacancies fall by 42% Y-o-Y and 32% Q-o-Q. Arts and Entertainment vacancies were down by 36% Y-o-Y and 25% Q-o-Q. Meanwhile, Retail experienced a 32% fall Y-o-Y and a 14% fall Q-o-Q, while Catering was down by 28% yearly and quarterly.

Sectors with a strong multinational presence, such as Banking (-8% Y-o-Y; -10% Q-o-Q), Accountancy (-5% Y-o-Y; -18% Q-o-Q), Finance (-1% Y-o-Y; -20% Q-o-Q) Science (-4% Y-o-Y; -6% Q-o-Q) recorded minor falls, reflective of a cautious outlook rather than any retrenchment in recruitment.

Vacancy Generation

Overall, the Catering sector accounted for over 13% of job vacancies in Q4 2022. The Medical Professionals & Healthcare sector (11%) was the next largest generator of job vacancies, followed by the Management occupational group (8%). The IT sector accounted for 7% of job vacancies in fourth place.

Jobs by location & remote work

With regards to jobs by location, 21 counties experienced both year-on-year and quarterly decreases in vacancies in Q4, while five counties experienced relatively modest increases. The largest gains were seen in Cork (+30% Y-o-Y; +10% Q-o-Q), Offaly (+19% Y-o-Y; +7% Q-o-Q) and Roscommon (+18% Y-o-Y; +7% Q-o-Q).

Meanwhile, Q4 was the second quarter in a row to see a fall in the number of working-from-home (fully remote) job vacancies. In Q4, working-from-home vacancies declined by 20% in Q4 after falling 7% in Q3. While remote working opportunities continue to be significantly higher than pre-Covid times, the trajectory for these roles appears downward as the remote working opportunities adjust to the evolving working environment.

Orla Moran continued: “The data from this latest Index shows us that the demand for skilled and experienced staff is not likely to end any time soon. The ESRI is predicting that unemployment will remain under 5% for the next twelve months, and with such high levels of employment across all sectors, employe...

The CV VC Top 50 Report 2022 is an annual assessment undertaken by CV VC AG to provide an overview of Crypto Valley developments. It shows that Crypto Valley, which includes Switzerland and Liechtenstein, is the most mature blockchain hub. It continued to expand steadily in 2022 because of an exemplary regulatory jurisdiction and a determined decentralized mindset exhibited by the 1135 entities building from there.

The CV VC Top 50 Report 2022 is a testament to the fact that blockchain is evolving into a multi-billion dollar industry in Crypto Valley. While Swiss-based, the Top 50 have an international footprint.

The Top 50 Crypto Valley entities of 2022

The valuation of the Top 50 entities is $185B. This splits into $175.6B for blockchain platforms by market capitalization and $9.7B for companies by equity valuation Despite the ongoing market volatility, commercial blockchain companies in Crypto Valley have defied typical industry trends, with an impressive 55% growth in market valuations. The market cap for platforms in the Top 50 significantly decreased by 71%

There are 9 unicorns in Crypto Valley, of which 7 are blockchain platforms and 2 are commercial companies. This is the first time that commercial blockchain companies have joined the unicorn herd which is indicative of the maturity of Crypto Valley The Top 50 is split 26 to 24 platforms vs. commercial companies, indicating the symbiotic nature of the very assured blockchain ecosystem in Crypto Valley

Crypto Valley is leading the charge for decentralized, trust-based systems. Through blockchain technology and infrastructure-building initiatives, it aims to create greater efficiencies in tackling global issues. Other key metrics from the Top 50 Report 2022 include:

7 blockchain platforms in Crypto Valley are Unicorns. They are building infrastructure that ensures privacy, freedom, financial inclusion, transparency, and efficiency. They will allow billions of people to create, transact, and own digital value 2 commercial companies in Crypto Valley are Unicorns. Gnosis Safe – manager of digital assets on Ethereum and 21.co, the world’s largest ETP issuer

The number of companies in Crypto Valley is steady at 1135. There were 190 new firms registered, and 183 ceased which is a balanced achievement given the global market turmoil. Employment has dipped just 4% across Crypto Valley during a period when tech employment is constricting globally. The Top 50 entities for 2022 increased funding by 2.7%, reaching $3.2B

CV VC Top 50 Report Charts

Crypto Valley is not compromising on the core principles of the blockchain technology space: decentralization, openness, and transparency. The encompassing regulatory environment in Switzerland and Liechtenstein is acknowledged as one of the major assets for the attractiveness and success of the Crypto Valley. As a pioneering example, Switzerland’s DLT Act has provided the foundation for other countries to follow as more governments seek to adopt similar approaches.

While some might worry that regulation may chill innovation, Switzerland’s standards are a distinct advantage, not alone for participants in Crypto Valley but for blockchain business positioning.

Crypto Valley is at the forefront of driving progress for components that form the core infrastructure behind Web3, from decentralized identity solutions to zero-knowledge systems designed to maximize scalability and staking services.New Top 50 entries reflect this progress in Crypto Valley, such as:

Iamx, the first Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) solution provider to incentivize consumer activity and comply with the strictest security standards

Intmax is a roll-up project that will evolve Ethereum into something that can be used by online citizens worldwide as infrastructure principally for payments, including other forms of internet-native ownership through NFTs and community-governed tokens.

Bridge Tower, which is bridging the value of blockchain staking and DeFi products seamlessly...

Researchers at the University of Galway associated with APC Microbiome Ireland, a world-leading SFI Research Centre, have created a resource of over 7,000 digital microbes – enabling computer simulations of how drug treatments work and how patients may respond. The resource is a milestone in the scientific understanding of human response to medical treatment as it offers the opportunity for computer simulations and predictions of differences in metabolism between individuals, including for diseases such as inflammatory bowel, Parkinson’s and colorectal cancer.

The database – called AGORA2 – builds on the expertise developed in the creation of first resource of digital microbes known as AGORA1. AGORA2 encompasses 7,203 digital microbes, created based on experimental knowledge from scientific publications, with a particular focus on drug metabolism.

The resource has been built by a team of scientists at University of Galway’s Molecular Systems Physiology group, led by APC Microbiome Ireland principal investigator Professor Ines Thiele.

The team’s research aims to advance precision medicine by using computational modelling.

Professor Thiele explained: “AGORA2 is a milestone towards personalised, predictive computer simulations enabling the analysis of person-microbiome-drug interactions for precision medicine applications.

“Humans are hosting a myriad of microbes. Just like us, these microbes eat and interact with their environment. Considering that we are all unique, each of us hosting an individual microbiome our metabolism is also expected to vary between individuals.

“The insight provided by the database of digital microbes presents a healthcare opportunity to harness individual differences in metabolism to provide personalised, improved treatments in ‘precision medicine’, compared to a currently more general ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

“Besides our food, our individual microbiomes also metabolise the medicines we take. The same drug may therefore manifest diverse effects in disparate people because of the differences in metabolism performed by the different microbiomes.”

Using the digital microbe resource AGORA2, computer simulations have shown that drug metabolism varies significantly between individuals, as driven by their own microbiomes.

Uniquely, the AGORA2-based computer simulations enabled the identification of microbes and metabolic processes for individual drugs correlated with observations in a clinical setting.

The research was published today in Nature Biotechnology.

The team at University of Galway demonstrated that AGORA2 enables personalised, strain-resolved modelling by predicting the drug conversion potential of the gut microbiomes from 616 colorectal cancer patients and controls, which greatly varied between individuals and correlated with age, sex, body mass index and disease stages. This means that the team can create digital representations and predictions specific to the divergent microbes.

Professor Thiele added: “Knowledge of our individual microbiomes and their drug metabolising capabilities represents a precision medicine opportunity to tailor drug treatments to an individual to maximise health benefit while minimising side effects.

“By using AGORA2 in computer simulations our team have showed that the resulting metabolic predictions enabled superior performance compared to what was possible to date.”

Professor Paul Ross, Director of APC Microbiome Ireland, said: “This research is a perfect illustration of the power of computational approaches to enhance our understanding of the role of microbes in health and disease – significantly this digital platform will be a fantastic resource that could lead to the development of novel personalised therapeutic approaches which take the microbiome into account.”

This work was led by the University of Galway and completed as part of a collaboration between many international institutions, including the Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Lorrain...