Ireland’s Akkure Genomics, today launched a nationwide campaign, the first of its kind in the world, called project ‘Find Akkure’, in which it issued a call to arms to the Irish public and charities with neurological illnesses to register their interest in receiving highly subsidised ‘Medical Digital Twins’ that could advance the rapid development of new medical technologies for those illnesses.

Akkure, a company founded by Irish doctor and professor in medical robotics, Oran Rigby, creates Medical Digital Twins, a ground-breaking way for hosting a patient’s genetic data and representing virtual copies of a person’s entire genetic makeup. By grouping the data together in large numbers on Akkure’s system, they can create incredibly powerful data sets to help researchers find cures through precision medicine.

These ‘Twins’ are a powerful asset, owned by the patient and have the potential to revolutionise the way new therapeutics are developed, with patients lending access to their precision medical data. The company puts people back in control of their medical and genetic data by hosting it securely and allowing read-only access to researchers.

Akkure is calling on patients to join the movement from today and anyone interested in finding out more about the campaign can register their interest on their website at Akkure.com.

Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Akkure’s founder and Chief Executive, Prof. Oran Rigby, said; ‘’We are asking individuals across Ireland to register their interest in diseases and conditions that matter to them to create communities of “Medical Digital Twins”; on the Akkure platform. Akkure will then partner with prospective researchers on behalf of these digital communities to analyse the insights contained in this data. By studying this, researchers could find out why some people get diseases like MS or MND, and why some don’t. Patients will be in control of who sees their data and what it is used for.’’

Prof. Rigby went on to say ‘’The future of precision medicine will be using our DNA data to figure out why people get ill, how disease affects them, and how to cure them. Akkure is leading the way in the development of this next generation of precision medicine. We now have the technology to empower patients to be part of this process, and I would appeal to everyone to join us in this effort.’’

Prof. Rigby’s life has been dedicated to medicine and when he discovered his brother had developed Multiple Sclerosis, he went on that journey with him to find a cure. It was through this journey that Prof. Rigby saw the need to make this process easier for everyone to navigate, and he set up Akkure to do this. Prof. Rigby founded Akkure alongside Dr Amy Hollingworth, an Australian respiratory and lung transplant consultant specialist.

Professor John Crown, a senior consultant medical oncologist and cancer trials expert at St Vincent’s University Hospital is chair of Akkure’s medical research board.

Patients and charities who are interested in joining the ‘Find Akkure’ movement can get more information on how to sign up or register their interest at akkure.com. They can also follow the campaign on social media with the hashtag #FindAkkure.

About Akkure Genomics

Akkure is headquartered in NovaUCD and has secured major funding through the Government’s Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund and Enterprise Ireland.