5 Interesting Companies I Saw at HLTH

By Arundhati Parmar on November 04, 2024

Phenomix Sciences
This company based in Minneapolis and Palo Alto has its roots at Mayo Clinic. It has developed a test called the MyPhenome Test that helps people and their doctors understand why they gain weight and then get treated accordingly. The company’s test gathers behavioral and biomarker data along with a person’s saliva that is then to set to a lab for analysis.

People are stratified into four categories based on their phenotype (a person’s phenotype is determined by both genomic makeup, or genotype, and environmental factors): those with a hungry brain, those with a hungry gut, those who have emotional hunger, and finally those who are slow birds. Phenomix Sciences is focusing on the first three types of people.

Patients with a “hungry brain” suffer from abnormal satiation and require more calories during mealtime to reach maximal fullness. If you are diagnosed as one, you “will benefit from a low calorie diet with more dietary fiber, consumed in a time-restricted fashion, whichs is associated with improved appetite sensations, enhanced satiation, and sustained compliance,” according to the company.

Patients with a “hungry gut” have accelerated gastric emptying — the speed at which the stomach empties its contents to the duodenum. That condition can be linked to having lower levels of a hormone called GLP-1. These patients might benefit from a high protein diet with protein preloads to improve GLP-1, according to the company.

Finally, people with emotional hunger will most likely benefit from interventions tied to behavior change. Their weight may be controlled and reduced by “structured for goal-setting, self-monitoring, and stimulus control,” according to the company.

The company focused on those three phenotypes for a reason — they happen to be those for which pharma companies have developed drugs, explained Mark Bagnall, CEO of the Phenomix Sciences.

“Once a physician knows you have one of those phenotypes, they can prescribe accordingly,” he said.

He noted that besides drugs there are behavioral and surgical interventions too.

“So it really gives, depending on what type of provider you are, how you are going to intervene with your patient, a really clear picture of the types of things that are good for your patient,” he said. “I think the future of medicine is to personalize medicine based on people’s genetics and other factors.”

I actually took the test myself to see what kind of phenotype I have. I will report back once I have the results.

Read the full article here.