1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sergey Jakimov, Co-Founder and Partner at LongeVC (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Are you looking for something in this DNA testing and sequencing area that you haven’t found yet?

Sergey Jakimov: I would be looking for a merge between DNA sequencing capacity and actionable insights based on that. I would be looking at the comprehensive model where the company offers you DNA sequencing and a comprehensive report with some supplement-based insights or potential diagnostic-based insight or non-prescription interventions to mitigate risks.

It can be a comprehensive end-to-end solution where DNA would be part of the story. Then we would boil down to personalized insights and guidance that would resonate.

Sramana Mitra: I had a few conversations about DNA testing with some doctors. There is a test called Gallery Test that costs about $1,000. The resistance that the doctors have is that they don’t really know what to do with the result which speaks to what you are talking about.

Are we going to do a bunch of invasive biopsies all over the place? How do you manage this? Part of the issue right now, in terms of adoptions is, you do the test and then what?

Sergey Jakimov: Absolutely. Genetics is a very good example of it. In general, if we’re talking about applicability or clinical data, a lot of people shout, “More data, the better.” Realistically, we don’t know what to do with it. With genetics, this is very bad. What you were talking about is our need to educate healthcare professionals to take actions on these mutations. This is really limited even in very specific fields.

Let me just give you one example. If we look at personalized DNA testing in oncology where you sequence tumor DNA to find personalized treatments, one of the popular ones is Foundation Medicine. Foundation Medicine pioneered the whole DNA sequencing for treatment. It was bought by Roche. Even with Foundation, an oncologist sends over a tumor sample. Foundation sends back a 45-page report with mutations. The oncologist only knows how to act on the upper part of the first page. Then all the rest is FYI.

Sramana Mitra: You’re pointing to a lot of gaps in the industry where there are opportunities for entrepreneurship to figure out how to close this loop. That then-what question is a great set of opportunities for entrepreneurship. My last question is what is your assessment of gene editing?

Sergey Jakimov: It’s a broad topic. If by gene editing we mean CRISPR, the range of applicability of these is huge. We see it all the way from oncology to neuro-degenerative diseases to treatment of chronic illnesses such as type one diabetes. We don’t see these therapies in the market yet. We see a lot in the clinical development pipeline.

What is more interesting, in my view, is epigenetic reprogramming or epigenetics in general. It allows you to change the cell behavior. It allows you to change how the cell reads the DNA without cutting and inserting a modified part of the DNA. There is a very popular analogy. You imagine a CD with songs. You imagine a needle or laser reading that disk. That reading is done by the epigenetics which is around your genome.

The older you get, the more scratched this disk becomes. The songs start to skip. Your cells start losing the ability to repair themselves and participate in certain metabolic processes. This is how you age. This is how your body stops performing well. With epigenetics, you can alter the way cells read DNA and you can switch on certain processes that were switched off. You can rejuvenate certain parts of the body.

We have one exciting company which we have invested in out of Stanford called turn.bio. These guys figured out how to reverse certain degenerative processes in the eyes. They now moved to cancer. Epigenetics is equally as exciting but it’s not well publicized.

This segment is part 4 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sergey Jakimov, Co-Founder and Partner at LongeVC
1 2 3 4 5