Alpha-Genics
Our blog today comes from David Crider, currently a graduate student in the Cell Biology/Pathology program at Columbia University. He is also a consultant for Biocatalyst and the Development manager for Alpha-Genics. Alpha-Genics is the first company to provide personalized products based on your own unique genetic profile. Along with his recent work as a consultant David has worked in the biomedical Research field for the past 8 years in all three sectors, government, academia, and industry. He has a B.S. degree in biology from the Richard Stockton College of N.J., a M.S. degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, and a M.A. in cell biology from Columbia University. His thesis at Hopkins was about using specific cardiac markers for isolating early cardiomyocytes from a heterogeneous population of differentiated mouse embryonic stem cells. At Columbia he studies the inflammatory response in macrophages caused by lipid toxicity in cardiovascular and diabetic models. David is interested in aiding other biotech startup companies and is looking to build a team to start to develop some of his business ideas. Please feel free to contact him is you have any questions or comments regarding Alpha-Genics or any other projects that may be in development.
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I am here to announce the launch of the first product by Alpha-Genics called MyGene which will be available by..wait what? What do you mean you have never heard of MyGene or Alpha-Genics, that’s absurd!!! Science has been hinting about these products for close to a decade now- personalized medicine is being called the wave of the future and has been force fed down our throats; markets show all the consumer wants to do is be able to express themselves. What better way to do this than gaining greater control over your lives than at the molecular level!!! And MyGene enables you to do this.
Okay, maybe I should start from the beginning.
In 2004 I was finishing up my masters degree in the Johns Hopkins University biotechnology program when I took a class that changed my life and how I view science. The class, “Creating a Biotech Enterprise,” was taught by Dr. Fredric Abramson. My first thought was here was another brilliant professor that is going to be dull and boring- acting like students know nothing and that our ideas are simple and mundane. And why wouldn’t he? The man got his Ph.D. at Michigan in human genetics, a master of science in management from MIT, and not to mention his J.D. from American University, hello!! Well, I was wrong; I had to begrudgingly admit it was one of the most influential and exciting classes I have ever taken, and I have taken a lot of classes. It was in this class that I discovered that you can actually generate a business based on science. Of course I knew the existence of big biotech and pharmaceutical companies but it was during this class that I came to realize you can found a company by simply having a single cool idea. Dr. Abramson talked about the company he founded, Alpha-Genics, sporadically during his lectures but I didn’t realize how his experience and understanding of students would allow our paths to cross in the future. Dr. Abramson provided a letter of recommendation for my applications to graduate school December 2004 and we wished each other the best before parting ways. For reasons I still can not recall our communication was revived late in 2007 during my second year of graduate school at Columbia University. It was at this time where I started to understand what alpha-genics was really about. I was sold right away; not only did I understand the science I saw the huge potential that these products could have on the market. I was soon honored with the opportunity to become part of the marketing team for Alpha-Genics in late fall of 2007.
Alpha-Genics’ mission is t”o make our ‘normal’ genetic information useful to each of us so that we can improve our everyday lives.” They accomplish this through several personalized consumer products, the first one being MyGene. MyGene will allow the consumer to understand their genetic profile by highlighting personality trait genes. It is critical to understand that MyGene will NOT inform you that you are going to die from cancer or any other disease. MyGene takes your personalized DNA profile and targets areas such as socially important traits, weight control and physical performance.
In order to understand the powerful capabilities of MyGene it is important to understand biology 101, without the gory detail – remember this is fun. Your DNA is unique to you and doesn’t change much over your lifetime; however, activity of a gene, or gene expression, is a dynamic process that changes every second. There are many things that can influence and change this process such as diet and environment. It’s really simple, inside our bodies we have DNA and this DNA contains our genetic code which is the blueprint for our lives. It is a living book that contains the information about our eyes and hair, our skin, and the basic potential for important things like music, art, how food tastes, and how our body functions everyday. Imagine if you could change how you feel today or be able to know with biological certainty your true potential! MyGene by itself is a tremendous product, but Alpha-Genics has even more personalized genomic products in its pipeline. Wait until you hear about those…
Alpha-Genics is in the process of establishing itself as the main provider for personalized genomic products. Two other products set to launch in the next couple of years are Health for you and JeneJuice. You want to talk about personalized to your taste? Check out JeneJuice. This product is currently under development where it is set to personalize your sports drink according to your unique genetic code which can be stored on an electronic device like a “smart card”. And get this, each drink will be mixed according to your personalized “smart card” and blended right after purchase. This will provide the very first beverage to be specifically adjusted to a person’s biochemistry and physiology using genetic profiling. The final product in development is Health For You. This is a new class of dietary supplements that brings individualized nutritional solutions to the mass market. These custom-formulated supplements contain a mixture of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that are matched to the results of your genetic profile.
In summary, Alpha-Genics is the first company to provide personalized products based on your own unique genetic profile. This profile will test genes associated with such things as perfect pitch, staying up late, processing caffeine or alcohol, dance creativity, endurance sports such as swimming, how different foods taste, physical stamina, libido, and how we process ordinary nutrients and vitamins. If you would like to learn more about alpha-genics feel free to visit our web site to see the latest in personalized genomic products or email me at anytime at davidsbiotechnetwork@gmail.com. Also, I will be giving a talk next month in New York City during the New York Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Meetup meeting on January 9th, 2008. If you’re not a member please join and RSVP for this event. Hope to see you there.
Aside: It is now my goal to spread the word of the technology that is available and the novel innovative products that will be provided by alpha-genics. I will be presenting information about these products and the company so if you would like to hear a presentation and are in the New York or San Francisco area please email me at davidsbiotechnetwork@gmail.com.
David Crider
Consultant/Northeast Development Manager
Phone: 646-468-2621
Email: davidsbiotechnetwork@gmail.com
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This is a highly interesting yet very controversial issue. There is little to no legal regulation over supplements that can be used to help people based on their genetic profile. The problem is, there does not seem to be widespread agreement in the scientific community as to what genes actually control nutrition and what interactions among genes contribute to metabolism of food and other substances in the body. As such, if there is no consensus, then how can a product be developed based on someone’s genetic profile if even the scientists do not really yet know all of the genes and their interactions with each other that affect a person’s metabolism. Also, are all of the people using these 2 products in the possession of a genetic test result showing their genetic profile? There must be some interpretation of the genetic test results by a trained professional in order to enable the customer to accurately use those results. In New York State, for example, any company marketing genetic testing-related products to NY state residents (regardless of where the product is coming from) must be licensed by the NY State Dept of Health because NY state standards are quite high for genetic testing.
I look forward to this discussion.
Peter Castellano, Esq.