Metabiota, which recently raised a $31 million venture financing led by Pilot Growth Equity predicts where outbreaks will occur and helps governments, food producers and insurers prepare for and respond to them.

Edward Rubin, a geneticist who led a team that contributed to the Human Genome Project, has joined startup Metabiota Inc. to decode a new riddle: how to prevent the next deadly epidemic.

Recent infectious disease outbreaks, such as the West African Ebola epidemic, have sickened and killed thousands of people and destroyed livestock. Metabiota, which recently raised a $31 million venture financing led by Pilot Growth predicts where outbreaks will occur and helps governments, food producers and insurers prepare for and respond to them.

As director of the U.S. energy department’s Joint Genome Institute, Dr. Rubin led a team that sequenced 13% of the genetic code early last decade. As Metabiota’s chief science officer, he plans to lead an effort to use large scale DNA sequencing to spot pathogens that cause outbreaks and determine how their genes make them dangerous.

“The time is right for moving genomics into surveillance,” – Edward Rubin, Chief Science Officer, Metabiota