NEW YORK – Dante Genomics recently rebranded as Dante Omics, reflecting the firm's increasing inclusion of epigenomics and proteomics, and is in the process of rolling out new multiomic features for its flagship Dante Omics bioinformatics platform.
Over the coming weeks, the New York-based firm expects to make new features such as a ChatGPT-like tool called GenomeChat and medical decision support tools available to its global client base.
Dante, which was founded in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2016, has been expanding beyond genomics since 2023, when it began offering SomaLogic's SomaScan proteomics platform throughout the EU. That same year, the company launched its Avanti large-scale variant interpretation and report writing platform.
Dante Omics CEO Andrea Riposati said that the omics industry in general tends to get segmented into entities that specialize in one thing or the other, such as genomics or proteomics.
"But, the omics all interact with each other," he said. "If you're going to have an epigenetics analysis on top of your genome, that's more powerful than a single epigenetic analysis or a single genome [analysis]."
To that end, the company has been updating its Dante Omics platform, which consists largely of the firm's Dante DB multiomics database; Avanti, its business-to-business version meant to help clinicians and researchers generate reports and manage multiomic data at scale; and the business-to-consumer Genome Manager, which allows private individuals to access a limited suite of tools found in the Dante Omics platform.
In addition to integrating multiple data types beyond genomics, Dante has committed to making analysis easier for users without formal informatics training. A key component of this effort is the large language model (LLM)-based GenomeChat, which functions much like ChatGPT to enable any user to conduct their own analyses.
"We are aware," he said, "that a doctor is not a bioinformatician, [just as] a neurologist may not be a genetics expert." For that reason, Dante has endeavored to make the platform's interface as "plug-and-play" as possible.
"This way," Riposati said, "bioinformatics resources do not become constraints for our users."
Besides relatively standard genome analysis features such as variant calling, Riposati said that GenomeChat and the Dante Omics platform will help users such as clinicians answer questions such as what types of tests to run in order to confirm diagnoses and will help clinicians and private consumers understand how to make lifestyle changes in response to genetic risk factors. Riposati pointed out, however, that the platform's LLMs do not themselves perform variant calling, as this is not a task to which they are best suited. Rather, that analysis is carried out by a combination of "standard machine learning" and human oversight.
Furthering the company's goal of making its platform as user-friendly as possible, Dante Omics recently began a collaboration with Amazon Web Services to make Avanti available directly through the AWS marketplace.
Additionally, Riposati said that the platform is priced so as to not burden researchers' budgets. Costs are largely calculated per usage, at roughly between $20 and $50 per report, with reports running the gamut from pharmacogenetics and oncology variant analysis to rare disease diagnosis and carrier screening. Larger institutions that require more locally placed infrastructure may incur additional fees, and there are subscription options, although Riposati said that these are largely aimed at particularly high-volume users.
The low price point and ease of use is also meant to make Dante's platform more accessible in resource-constrained settings.
"Where there is not a specialist for your disease, [or] there is not a genetics center," Riposati said, "it's very important to get access to technologies that can save lives."
From disease to wellness
Beyond disease diagnosis and variant interpretation, Dante Omics is also developing multiomic-informed reports on longevity and wellness, complete with genomics-informed personalized nutrition advice.
The term "wellness" is variably defined within the scientific community and its use can be treated with skepticism for its proximity to the pseudoscientific wellness industry. Experts have voiced concerns, for instance, that generative AI-powered wellness apps can be used by people in the place of professional medical advice and do not typically undergo any regulatory review.
Riposati said that Dante's wellness test is largely geared towards people who want to use multiomics to better understand the impact that lifestyle choices may have on their bodies. The resulting reports include such actionable measures as special diets, vitamin and supplement programs, exercise programs, and advice to change sleep patterns, among others.
Genomics-informed, personalized dietary advice, sometimes referred to as "eating for your genome," also exists in something of a regulatory and scientific gray area. Although numerous scientific studies have found evidence for potential benefits of genomics-informed personalized nutrition plans, these possibilities have not been consistently verified in clinical trials and nutrigenomics, because it is not always considered medical advice and, particularly in the direct-to-consumer setting, is only lightly regulated.
Genomics-informed longevity, too, comes with caveats.
"Longevity is not a matter of genes," Calogero Caruso, professor emeritus of pathology at the University of Palermo, in Italy, said via email.
Considerable research has gone into determining the genetic underpinnings of longevity, Caruso explained, and while genes do play a role, their effect size generally pales in comparison to lifestyle factors.
"Individuals with exceptional longevity may possess genetic factors that counteract the effects of unhealthy behaviors," Caruso said, "[but] during the first eight decades of life, lifestyle plays a more significant role than genetics in determining health and lifespan."
As individuals reach their 80s and beyond, Caruso said, genetics appears to become increasingly important in maintaining health and longevity.
"Despite advancements in research and technology, only two genes, APOE and FOXO3A, both associated with cardiovascular protection, have been consistently linked to longevity across nearly all studies," Caruso said.
Riposati indicated that Dante's longevity reports are also geared toward addressing a person's wellness concerns and stressed that while they provide an estimate of a person's "biological age," they do not provide any estimates of potential remaining lifespan.
In contrast to chronological age, or how old one is, biological age is generally thought of as a measure of how healthily a person is aging and often correlates with measures of cellular function.
Looking ahead, Riposati said that Dante Omics plans to release the Dante Total Proteomics test later this year. This hardware-agnostic analytic tool can be applied to assisting in the diagnosis of cardiovascular, cardiometabolic, and neurologic disorders, as well as those having to do with inflammation, immuno-oncology, metabolism, and cell regulation.
Dante is also looking into spatial omics assays for complex conditions such as cancers.
"I would forecast that we will see more and more spatial being used in oncology," Riposati said.