Mariana Matus is a Mexican biologist and the CEO and co-founder of Biobot Analytics, a startup that aims to help governments tackle the opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic by analyzing sewage samples.
Mariana Matus | |
|---|---|
 Matus on Notimex in 2018 | |
| Born | Mariana Guadalupe Matus García Mexico City, Mexico |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD, 2018 Wageningen University, MS, 2012 |
| Known for | CEO of Biobot Analytics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Epidemiology, Computational Biology |
| Institutions | Biobot Analytics, CEO and Co-founder |
| Thesis | Analysis of fecal biomarkers to impact clinical care and public health (2018) |
| Doctoral advisor | Eric Alm |
Education and early career
editMatus was born in Mexico City. She grew up in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.[1] She attended National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she received her Bachelor of Science in genomics[2] in 2009. She then attended Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands,[1] where she received her Master of Science in biotechnology. She next moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received her Doctor of Philosophy in computational biology and systems biology in 2018 under the mentorship of Eric J. Alm.[3]
Her doctoral work centered on exploring the potential of using fecal biomarkers to understand epidemiological trends,[1][3] which led to a $4 million (USD) grant from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences[1] and later became the basis for her company Biobot Analytics. She performed a genomics and metabolomics analysis of wastewater sampled in residential sewage and was able to identify thousands of bacteria and metabolites that were the result of human activity over the course of a 24-hour period.[4] In addition to this work, she also collaborated with researchers in Germany to perform a microbiome analysis in mice and humans, which found that the bacteria Lactobacillus murinus can act as a probiotic to reduce the likelihood of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.[5][6]
Biobot Analytics
editMatus co-founded Biobot Analytics in 2017 with urban scientist Newsha Ghaeli.[7] The company is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[8] Matus sought to apply her expertise in wastewater epidemiology to detect emerging trends that can be found in sewage.[9] Namely, sewage can contain disease markers like viruses and other pathogens, chemical contaminants, and drugs, which can allow scientists to understand disease trajectories, the spread of chemical hazards, and trends in drug consumption. Matus and Ghaeli have tested their approach in Boston, Kuwait, and Seoul, collaborating with biologist, chemists, engineers, and architects.[10]
Biobot has been working to tackle the opioid epidemic in the United States by pilot testing whether they can use a robot to collect wastewater samples and detect the human metabolite that shows a person has ingested a drug.[11] The technology can be used to identify the kind of opioid, whether it is prescription or illegal, and patterns of usage across neighborhoods by testing wastewater in manholes, which are local to a community.
Biobot was piloted in Cary, North Carolina beginning in 2018 with the support of a $100,000 grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies's Mayors Challenge.[12] In the three-month-long pilot, 10 small robots were deployed across town into the sewage system to collect waste samples, which will then be measured for their concentration of 16 different opioid-related metabolites.[13] The robots sampled from manholes that collect waste from between 4,000 and 15,000 people and were able to non-invasively identify a distribution of prescription opioids used across town.[7] Since the pilot ended, Biobot continues to monitor the manholes in Cary and has pilot studies set up in seven municipalities across Boston. Matus and her team have since pitched applying Biobot to track the opioid consumption, and other epidemiological trends, to over 800 mayors across the United States.[10]
Biobot is currently analyzing wastewater from 150 treatment plants in 30 U.S. States.[14] For example, the state of Massachusetts is currently working with Biobot to analyze wastewater from the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant of Boston for coronavirus. The goal is to provide a source of data for early warning about new coronavirus outbreaks.[15]
The startup has competed in a number of startup competitions, winning prizes at MIT's DesignX startup accelerator in 2017.[16] In 2018, shortly after their launch, Matus and partner Ghaeli raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Ekistic Ventures, Y Combinator, Refactor Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures and several other investment firms.[17] Biobot's analysis for coronavirus is supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness.[14]
Awards and honors
edit- Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, 2023
- TIME100 Industry Innovator, 2022
- Boston Globe 50 Tech Power Players, 2022
- Newsweek's 50 Greatest Disruptors, 2021
- Trailblazer, Chemical & Engineering News, 2020[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Out of sight and out of mind, sewage can actually tell us a lot about health". MIT News. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
- ^ #<Author:0x00007f10cd9dc3c8>. "A microbial bridge to MIT". The Tech. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b García, Matus (2018). Analysis of fecal biomarkers to impact clinical care and public health (Thesis thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/119603.
- ^ Matus, Mariana; Duvallet, Claire; Kido Soule, Melissa; Kearney, Sean M.; Endo, Noriko; Ghaeli, Newsha; Brito, Ilana; Ratti, Carlo; Kujawinski, Elizabeth B. (2019-08-07). "24-hour multi-omics analysis of residential sewage reflects human activity and informs public health". doi:10.1101/728022. S2CID 201213324.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Strain of intestinal bacteria can stop high-salt diet from inducing inflammatory response linked to hypertension". medicalxpress.com. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ Wilck, Nicola; Matus, Mariana G.; Kearney, Sean M.; Olesen, Scott W.; Forslund, Kristoffer; Bartolomaeus, Hendrik; Haase, Stefanie; Mähler, Anja; Balogh, András; Markó, Lajos; Vvedenskaya, Olga (2017-11-30). "Salt-responsive gut commensal modulates TH17 axis and disease". Nature. 551 (7682): 585–589. Bibcode:2017Natur.551..585W. doi:10.1038/nature24628. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 6070150. PMID 29143823.
- ^ a b c "Mariana Matus means to combat the opioid epidemic with chemical data". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ "If A Second COVID-19 Wave Is On The Horizon In Mass., Experts Say There's A Good Chance We'll See It Coming". www.wbur.org. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
- ^ "Analytics Startup Uses Robots to Improve Wastewater Systems". www.govtech.com. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ a b "How scientists want to use sewers to track the spread of opioids". STAT. 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
- ^ Kuchler, Hannah (May 26, 2019). "Tech start-ups tackle US opioid crisis". Financial Times. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ Poon, Linda (30 April 2018). "Cities Wage a Digital War Against the Opioid Crisis". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ Kaufman, Rachel. "Sewage May Hold the Key to Tracking Opioid Abuse". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
- ^ a b Karedes, Drew (24 April 2020). "Robots will detect COVID-19 infection under manholes". WFXT. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
- ^ "More Shutdowns Are Avoidable, But The Public Needs To Trust Science, Dr. Fauci Says At Harvard". www.wbur.org. 6 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
- ^ "Xconomy: Tackling Opioid Crisis, Biobot Wins Top Prize at MIT DesignX Event". Xconomy. 2017-05-18. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ "Biobot Analytics, a Startup Using Sewage to Fight the Opioid Crisis, Raises $2.5M". The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2020-03-09.