Bioinformatics of ayurvedic medicine sources and treatment response stratification

Ayurvedic medicine, originated over three centuries ago in India, is a system of medicine built on the
individualized description of the individual, environment and the disease. Ayurvedic treatment formulations
have always had a large degree of individualization or subgrouping, ideas that western medicine is beginning to
embrace with precision medicine. Large emphasis in ayurveda is on understanding body construction and
interaction with diet and lifestyle, and most, if not all, products used for treatment have natural sources of origin
such as mountain herbs and plants. Over 1,000 different compounds or mixtures have been described in various
literature, and anecdotal efficacy can be found in western texts. More controlled studies are now being designed
to compare these against western/allopathic treatment protocols in areas such as diabetes, schizophrenia,
rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. The goals of this study are to, in collaboration with
Indian scientists, a) determine compounds and mixtures that show efficacy in a controlled randomized trial, b)
advanced data integration of genomics, clinical factors and metagenomics, in order to build predictive
frameworks of treatment outcomes for learning prognostic factors, and c) bridge ayurvedic concepts of
compounds/substances showing efficacy with western medical understanding, relating treatment concepts at a
molecular or biological pathways level.