Peer-Reviewed Validation Case Study: CytoSolve® Systems Architecture for Acute Myeloid Leukemia with Ermaris Bio, Inc.

Partner Description

The Forsyth Institute
The Forsyth Institute is a globally recognized leader in oral health research, with deep expertise in periodontal disease, host–microbiome interactions, and translational dental science. Its investigators have played a central role in defining the immunological and microbial mechanisms underlying periodontitis and advancing evidence-based therapeutic strategies.

Challenge

Periodontitis is a multifactorial, chronic inflammatory disease driven by complex interactions between the oral microbiome and host immune, epithelial, connective tissue, vascular, and bone cells. While decades of research have identified numerous pathways and mediators involved in disease progression, this knowledge remained fragmented across hundreds of studies. The field lacked a unified, systems-level framework capable of integrating molecular interactions across multiple cell types, biological scales, and disease processes in a manner suitable for hypothesis generation, target discovery, and translational modeling. Critically, no comprehensive molecular systems architecture of periodontitis had undergone rigorous peer-reviewed validation.

How CytoSolve® Helped

CytoSolve collaborated with Forsyth Institute–affiliated investigators to develop and validate a molecular systems architecture of host–microbiome interactions in periodontitis. Using CytoSolve’s supervised bioinformatics workflow, researchers conducted a systematic literature review spanning publications from 1980 through 2022 across PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar.

From an initial corpus of 977 articles, 209 peer-reviewed studies met strict inclusion criteria and were curated to extract experimentally supported molecular interactions. These interactions were organized across eight key cell types in the periodontal microenvironment—gingival epithelial cells, fibroblasts, periodontal ligament cells, endothelial cells, keratinocytes, immune cells, microbial cells, and bone cells—and consolidated into fourteen interconnected molecular systems.

The resulting systems architecture explicitly linked molecular pathways to higher-order biological processes, including immune modulation, soft-tissue loss, and bone loss. All interactions were evidence-traceable to their originating studies, ensuring transparency, reproducibility, and auditability. The architecture and its methodological rigor were subjected to full peer review and published in JADA Foundational Science, providing independent validation of both the systems framework and CytoSolve’s approach.

Key Benefits Realized

  • First peer-reviewed molecular systems architecture integrating host–microbiome interactions in periodontitis.
  • Consolidation of fragmented periodontal biology into a unified, multi-cellular framework.
  • Explicit mapping of fourteen molecular systems driving immune modulation, soft-tissue loss, and bone loss.
  • Evidence-traceable interaction network supporting reproducibility and scientific scrutiny.
  • Identification of potential therapeutic targets across epithelial, immune, connective tissue, and bone compartments.
  • Foundational platform for future mechanistic in silico modeling and combination therapy discovery.

Outcome

The Forsyth Institute–led collaboration resulted in the first peer-reviewed validation of a comprehensive molecular systems architecture of periodontitis, published in JADA Foundational Science . This validated framework provides the periodontal research community with an integrative, mechanistic view of disease pathogenesis, bridging host immunity, microbial dysbiosis, and tissue destruction. The work establishes a rigorous systems biology foundation for future computational modeling, therapeutic target prioritization, and the development of more effective, mechanism-based interventions for periodontal disease.