When COVID-19 closed down in 2020, Kian was one of the many students who found himself in his bedroom. He likes it that way.
During those months at home in Brooklyn, he filled eight spiral notebooks with research. He dropped out of Penn to pursue full time in the formation of Nucleus Genomics, which he still listed as a "stealth" startup on his LinkedIn.
Thegenomics pitch provides a fresh take on the analysis. Users can either get their genetic information from a company like 23andMe or order a genetic testing kit. Polygenic risk scores will be calculated and displayed in a user-friendly platform by the company.
The thesis is a human genome on every phone. We combine genetic and non-genetic information to calculate the absolute risk scores for people.
The seed round was led by the Founders Fund. The round has participation from Adrian Aoun, Patrick Hsu, Matteo Franceschetti, Joshua Browder, and Cory Levy.
People will be eager to know more about their genomes, that's the idea behind Nucleus Genomics. They will want to learn how to read that information.
This interest is clearly held by Sadeghi. He traced the ideological origin of his company to the premature death of a cousin from long QT syndrome. He began to experiment with genes at Genspace, a community biology lab. He was featured in a Wall Street Journal story.
Others share the same interest in genetics. GEDMatch is a service that helps people find lost relatives or solve cold cases by uploading their genetic information to it.
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing has exploded in recent years. Fewer than 2 million people ordered genetic tests. It was north of 12 million by the end of the year. According to the report, one in five Americans have turned over their genetic data to either 23andMe or a competitor.
There could be more fuel left in the fire. A poll done by the Associated Press NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that as many as 54 percent of Americans had not heard about genetic testing.
Many people who have yet to embrace genetic testing are younger. There is some evidence to back this up. The average user of the genetic test was middle aged, white, and most likely a college educated female according to a survey.
The average age of a 23andMe user is 45. The age of the user base of 23andMe has not been confirmed by the website.
He says that the company will distribute reports that are user-friendly through new distribution channels.
He said that they could introduce an entire generation to genetic testing by tapping into a brand-new audience.
New users won't necessarily be relied on by Nucleus. It wants to become a third-party platform where people could store their data. There are already third-party platforms like impute.me and Allelica that provide detailed information on clinical disease risk if users upload genetic information.
Cash for the user is a good incentive for uploading.
If users choose to share their genetic information, it will be open to other drug companies. Should they choose to share their genetic information, they could earn a dividend.
Consumer data is being shared. 23andMe has a deal with Glaxo to use genetic information for drug identification and research, but only data from users who opt-in to this service is shared. The drug for cancer is already in clinical trials.
Users get their own payouts for providing genetic data in exchange for it being used to develop drugs and other medical products.
The amount of the dividend payment is still undecided.
There are regulatory paths.
There are still questions about how genetic testing can be used to predict health risks.
The first reports using genetics to predict health risk were released in the year 2013. The company was told to pump the brakes by the FDA. The company has received FDA approval for a number of genetic tests that quantify health risks for conditions like Parkinson's or breast cancer. The diabetes risk calculation test was not approved by the FDA because it was called a "wellness product".
The process of getting the tests and reports approved was hammered out by 23andMe. It has opened the possibility of getting 510(k) premarket clearance for other genetic analysis software if they show the same accuracy. The exact process was disclosed as a risk factor in the S-1 filing.
The polygenic risk score is still being developed. The company has a secret sauce.
It is extremely technical, extremely hard, and cutting edge. The company initially plans to use a method that was once used by Ancestry, which was to order tests from a clinical network.
The company can sidestep FDA approval of its algorithms at first, since this process is regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Maybe not for a while. The 510(k) market approval was applied for by the company.
In the future, we do seek to go that route, according to the email that was forwarded to us.
The company plans to launch in January of 2022, with plans to grow the team from three to six or seven members.
Every person has the human genome sequence. Who is going to collect that data? I am hoping that it is Nucleus.
