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What you’ll hear in this epsiode:

• The importance of proteins in our body and what they can tell us about our overall health 
• Erisyon’s product and its implications for diagnostics, therapeutics, and understanding diseases such as COVID
• The challenges and journey behind a start-up bioscience technology company

Everyone has heard of 23andMe, but imagine a company where you could send off a biological sample and instead of only getting information about your history, you received details about your current health, including diagnostic predictions for diseases like cancer. This is the future that Erisyon is working towards. “Except we joke that it’s 23 and Me versus 20,000 and me,” laughs co-founder and CTO Jag Swaminathan. 

Bioscience technology start-up Erisyon has developed the world’s first single molecule protein sequencer. Instead of DNA, their instrument analyzes proteins, and every cell in your body contains 20,000 different types of proteins. Most people think of whey shakes when they think of protein, but Swaminathan and co-founder / VP Angela Bardo explain that protein is very pervasive and significant in our bodies. 

If DNA is a blueprint and our body is the house it describes, proteins are the structural components that make up that home, such as the doors, windows, and paint on the walls. This means that if there’s a leak in the roof – or in other words, you’re sick, and something is wrong in your body – analysis of the proteins in a biological sample will reveal that. 

There are many existing diagnostic procedures that utilize protein analysis, such as submitting a blood sample at the doctor. But Erisyon has developed a platform technology that is more sensitive and innovative than comparable technologies. Their product encompasses both the instrument and processes to analyze the results rendered from the technology. Erisyon aspires to have one instrument at every university, pharmaceutical company, and research lab across the country. 

In addition to diagnostics, Erisyon’s product can be used to develop therapeutics and indicate overall health. Bardo explains that she hopes to use Erisyon’s product to help individuals understand their own unique baseline of health. Everyone has distinct protein levels and Bardo recognizes the potential for lifelong testing so that individuals can monitor, understand, and maintain their health rather than retroactively react to illness. 

Swaminathan is looking forward to the innovative and breakthrough research that is made possible through Erisyon’s technology, understanding that thier work can facilitate everything from diagnosing neurological disease to assessing biomarkers of cancer to understanding how a cell replicates. “That gamut of implications is what we want Erisyon to answer,” he explains. 

Considering their tight start-up budget and industry restrictions, “ACC was one of the few if not the only place we could go,” Bardo explains, expressing the importance of the organic collaboration that exists within the ACC Bioscience Incubator community as well. 

Listen to the full episode to get insight into what proteins can tell us about our health, how Bardo and Swaminathan became so passionate about science, and to hear their advice for young start-ups (25:21-26:40)! If you enjoyed this episode be sure to like, subscribe, and check out more “Science in the Mall, Y’all” here!

Science In the Mall, Y’all is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with the ACC Bioscience Incubator.

Host: Dan Dillard, founding_media

Guest: Angela Bardo and Jag Swaminathan

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast produced at Austin community college district well the size of the mall y’all I’m your host Dan Dillard discovered nineteen is impacted the world we’ve been focusing our current episodes on the work and some of the science being done here locally in Austin today our show is all about proteins we’re joined by doctors Angela Bardo in Jackson and nothing their skin is a product of the university of Texas at Austin and they’re commercializing a new technology that has the ability to model and sequence protein molecules proteins are the underlying structure that all diagnostic tests rely on so this technology has the potential to revolutionize diagnostic testing in a clinical setting we provide the safer more personalized medical intervention options let’s get to a conversation so Angela jacket can tell you more Jack and Angela thanks for being on the show really excited to have this conversation I want to learn more about their skin and all the things that you guys are doing up Jacque we’ll start with you how did you get started with every so well let’s first talk about what does and then we’ll we’ll talk about how you got into it sure artists on this is us young seed stage startup prior be it’s coming out of like closed about ten years of work from UT Austin and what is your does is stock catalog and count all the proteins that is there any sample so that’s the that’s the goal and the implication is early diagnosis of diseases basic biological research tools and R. and D. can do other therapeutic interventions as well and and the products that we can make this up life science technology company that’s going to make a box sounds fascinat

ing how did you get involved in Los Angeles second how did you get involved or in this type of science so my background I come from India and I came to UT Austin to do my PhD work and my PSD my initial tops of PSD Weston this the den our hot field called synthetic biology and so I landed a place in the lab of Dr Edward Marcotte little did I know that there are more interesting projects are more challenging once a long wait and die one fine lead John mark me Edward dot Edward marcada myself kind of like a brainstorming session and he was posing this challenging problem about trying to sequence and identified proteins at the single molecule level so I caught my imagination and it’s being yeah all these years getting a PhD and our co founder of the startup so it’s been a nice ride from nice nice Angela well how do you get to meet first of all it’s agonizing involve others sure so my background is as analytical chemistry specifically single molecule imaging but I came to Texas when I came to Texas I started working at the university of Texas running a microscopy core facility and that department where Edward Marcotte and Jack we’re doing the research and I met them through that but I I left the university to work for Carl Zeiss who manufactures microscopes and I was ready ready to leave that company after a while and I ran into Edward and he told me convinced me seduce me into helping them do the microscopy part of this project he had gotten the money to expand the research and so yeah I joined to the lab maybe six years ago it seems like and what would end and I’ve been helping with that microscopy side and the analytical sort of element and then as the company spun out I’m in charge of product development and also developing the instrument that will do the analysis berricle what dump so just for the purpose of people who don’t have PH dis like myself it’s a technology cable of that they’re saying is developing

sure we are are the proteomics version of genomics sequencing which most people know and the sort of the world as twenty three at me as you send off your your DNA to be sequenced it tells you something about your your history and and who you were at first proteins though are far more active in your current state of health and so a recipient is really interested in doing that sort of thing with proteins so what catalog what what’s going on if you are say you have a disease where there’s a biomarker in very low concentration will be able to identify it at those early stages and help you get treatment faster or what may be more likely is will help researchers find those biomarkers and develop diagnostics to help and you might have answered this news last question about is one click clearly so so what three me to DNA is what every sin is to proteins what is can you explain to us again what is what control insulin protein itself like what’s on portable projects and I know that’s like from a do you guys know hawking about proteins and everything else the lower your so yeah yeah this is this is a classic question bad even my mom must strive not at all I I take it but it is important to convey that information so are you all may have heard about proteins from like your health supplements and things like that but you know when you have your DNA which people says the blueprint of life are and if you take the same analogy off a blueprint for a whole these are all the structural compliments that make the whole back the the blueprint will tell you that the door sorry about the windows could be and so forth but the actual doors the windows the color off the walls those are all the compliments that are the proteins so in other words if there is a disease R. it’s like a leak in the roof right so you don’t want to go to the blueprint and identify what the problem is you would drive to take a lot there observe the proteins and fix the roof so in in that same mileage G. proteins are what are both the structural and also the functional competence of any living south and every cell of your body has like twenty thousand different types of protein so we kind of like make a joke up that it’s twenty three and me were since twenty thousand and right

the other thing that I think everyone should know about proteins is that any diagnostics that you do today is measuring the levels of proteins back like ninety nine percent of all diagnostics thank measuring your blood glucose with this hedge B. A. one C. levels doctors Yar protein quantification like Ja’Quan defined approach that individual protein and that indicates your head that indicates your day to day fluctuations of help and so forth and any diagnostic any drugs that act on that do you take in like your aspirin to like your insulin supplements they’re all acting on troop teach so they modulate the function of the protein so I imagine these little nanomachines just running around your bloodstream fixing gobbling scaring our cancer cells they’re all a manifestation of these fundamental biomolecules culprit so yeah I hope I explained that road map no that was really really interesting because I you’re right when I think about protein I think about looking at my shakes how much protein again before work out and that’s pretty much what my knowledge of protein stops I’m curious and I just want to go back to college or even even before then what got you into the sciences like what was this up it was just something that was you know her family in in science or to use we just like those things back to the moment we like I want to go into science

yeah I’m okay so I I would say there were two are two crucial moments of my early life R. one was my grandfather gave me a little books CD’s it’s a plus it was he presented me with the world book encyclopedia but he also gave me are set up like a books about different individual science like physics astronomy and I was probably in like middle school or high school that’s one book in particular that really picked my interest with trust men of science alert was called people of science or something like that it was a small little book but back to had like stories from like artists toppling gallon to like modern things they they always were my superheroes soon after US backed armed the other are important point in my life who was shot in back in India there was a time when I apply for like fellowship and things like that and I got selected to wind back the project involves tracking wild elephants migration through some Indian jungles so seeing the elephant in the what was the single most like amazing moment wow moments one can encounter like you walk around in the bushes and dad is this gigantic other friend in the back just like it was a single man tells court I can not three days off so be it but that was all it took to black hello my mind about like how majestic biology is other things like all these like to draw so I would do all these like god help my friends and do dire diagram biological diagrams for high school so that was another reason why biology science has always been part of

I love it I love it Angela what about you you you can have a chemistry background what what attracted you to chemistry I’m it was hard I think that that I I I am I my family is not really the don’t have a background in science I think there are a few engineers and and my history but I went to high school and I took the chemistry class and I thought this was interesting it was it I didn’t really understand it and that’s pretty much my entire history of education the reason that I take the classes that I do or choose the feels that ideas because I have no idea what the people are talking about and I feel like I need to know so I started chemistry yeah but my real interest the reason the reason that I chose analytical chemistry and and spectra spectroscopy specifically which is the study of light is really because I think lightest fascinating even as a child you know coloring coloring books and crayons and and the sun through a prism today’s a beautiful day in Austin the light through the window makes me happy so yeah so the study of light is really sort of been my passion eighteen and and looking through microscopes and cameras it’s all really the same thing to me what was your wow moment like the first time you picked up a microscope is that the is that the wild me moment and how old were you no not at all so the light thing I was was pretty little when I was sort of wowed by light my father sold many things and for some reason well he sold lighting for industrial applications and for some reason we had a very large bug zapper with the fluorescent lights on the floor in the living room and I also happen to have these fluorescent crayons and I I was told or maybe I knew that they would glow under the the flashlight so I was calling with them and then if I took them away from the light you could color over them with normal crowns and not see anything and then you could put them under the light and use all the sort of mysterious image and that that whole concept was sort of fascinating to me but really spectroscopy sort of zoom into undergraduate I thought it was just so elegant and simple like you put light in you get light out but as you learn more about it there’s a deeper and deeper and deeper levels of complexity out why molecules will take in light and and and give you life back

and the application of that and then the the ability to make measurements out of it is is sort of been my my career driving force seven that’s how risky and does what it does is it puts these fluorescent reporters on the proteins and those requests for some reporters report back to us with that sequences through a lot of work and a lot of really interesting chemistry and a lot of really an interesting analysis but the the the the little workhorse guys are are fluorescent molecules telling us what’s going on through the microscope I live here in the store the story of the inception of the ideas and how that shapes the path that we all have correct really curious about you know what you were relationship and how your relationship with ACC biosensors lab and incubator how that’s affected your start up and how that’s helped and you know that kind of information we have similar either one of yes I’m also start a little bit in the jag maybe can take a little deeper so when we spun out the company we Jack and I are are in place at the university now and as well as as some founders of the company and we can have a the company can have a relationship with the university through sponsored research so basically the company is outsourcing research for the university to do but that has a lot of restrictions because the university of Texas is a non profit institution so we can’t have customers and and run samples for customers within that space

so we’ve done most of our early stage are indeed there so ACC was one of the few of the only places where we could set up a lab without breaking are very small seed start up budget and still be able to have a working lab and and put in our equipment and go there every day and and do research yeah I I think you’re just chiming in but but what I’m July said this has been like there’s a lot of restrictions at the university what can and cannot do is he is he is a great time it’s a great place for us to access our customer samples and then carry on further more in terms of commercial oriented it sounds like to me obviously you know trying doing all the research and the work over it at the U. T. R. universitas is and then having this the rules that you have to go I saw the comic separating church and state keeping two things separately in it and that’s what ACC biosensors lab allows you to do and at a as you mentioned at a cost that is acceptable to a startup that is all right yes absolutely I priced out all the equipment that I would have to buy if in addition to rent an addition to building out a lab space b

ecause Austin really should be a bioscience town but it’s not yet so there are not a lot of it in places where you could do that kind of research and it was it would have taken a significant portion of our budget and you only have money to pay for things or people and we would rather be paying for for people to do the science instead of things and so the bias yeah so so you know we do have a lot of our own equipment that we’ve we’ve brought in and that’s great but I’m it saves us freezers and balances and and there’s a community there which is also useful from a personal specially in these days of Kobe just to have some people around you is wonderful but then there’s the start up community that is helpful for me more of a getting resources and understanding within Austin that’s really really cool especially from you know just using my imagination to think about your set up and and as you mentioned not only the equipment not only of the resources that it saves you and allows you to do things that otherwise would not be possibly be focused a lot more on raising money in it and buying all this equipment which is which raises the risk of a of a start a profile but also it you’ll do you mention the colleagues that are working on other projects but you can certainly bounce ideas off and and just chat and just kind of figure out what they’re doing and that’s just as Britain spy ring for what you guys are doing what’s what’s what do you hope that there is C. N. does the next five years like what’s what’s the goal I mentioned at the very beginning you know early targeting of certain diseases but I want to learn more about that

the more that is that is pretty much about now well I I read a book and it’s bond to a built to last and it talks about trajectories of companies that lost for more than a hundred years so deeply inspiring I’m not saying anything about it and how are your shows trajectory would be but Donna what I envisioned our company to be as one of the leading companies in the space of proteomics and life science and and what does enabled all the different applications it would enable all the different diagnostics and therapeutics that people everybody in the laps would be using our instruments saying hospitals to diagnostic blood centers do you want our instrument to be there and but like very strong logo to be plastered on south that’s that’s the big goggles for what what our company does stand for and and of course like the more breakthrough type research you do the more interesting discoveries that in March from back and you can talk all the way from Nero a neurological diseases all the way to cancer to just understanding how does a saddle replicate so it’s kind of like Documentum applications is what we want our technology to be I’m sorry that makes sense yes it does I’m I’m just curious who are your or who are your current customers who will your current customers B. is it doctors at hospitals is it of pharmaceutical companies like an end because I assume that this is an instrument and a test so what I’m hearing

so it’s we are we are developing and up to a platform technology which is both an instrument and reagents a chemistry set an analysis that go along with that we are technology is new and the current technologies that do you that you do you used to have your diagnostics currently do not provide the sensitivity that art technology does and therefore we need to have these early seed applications and some of those applications that we’re developing internally our diagnostics so they are separate things but we’re hoping we’re hoping that our company will be developing tasks to be run on our instrumentation as well as selling our instrumentation to other companies to to to to develop those those tests or to do base asked access basic research so I expect they’ll be at least one and every university I’m in the same way there’s one you know big secret secrets are at every university but if you are up a pharmaceutical company or a big research institute you may have banks rooms full of where people are running their samples through twenty four seven god is do you guys ever envision you know you you did a comparison twenty three me to D. N. A. as what you guys approaching your vision having a test that goes out to the public in public can just like take the test and send it into one of these universities are one of the location to understand themselves about us

so I I I I think it’s a fair question to ask and Donna and I would say that people are doing it right the only catch is that they’re not doing it far like leisure OR to know their history they’re actually doing that then they they said that doctors to get that blood test right and so you’re not in the way it is being done these types of analytical test on your monitor your daily health and so forth the only thing is that the public is not C. instruments that Grundy’s test and that is what I think are bad we would set in and bought our technology is capable of doing so did I help you yeah I know that that helps us already done you’re going to go into a much deeper dive it didn’t work the people that are doing it A. K. doctors labs and so forth we’ll be able go much deeper than they’ve been able to go before so sounds like to me yes I am and it also gives new our test to be developed and this is where the the research arm comes into play right they double up a new diagnostic biomarker which is nothing but a fancy what to say decide that indications for your current disease and died as a test that you will be able to support so this is where our visions would be very nice very nice I I was just as these questions came up I mean I’m thinking I’m asking for a friend but I’d love to have that you know it I think anybody wants an untrained their body more and understand what can I do now to change my proteins to to catch things early

and I think that’s that’s a that’s a question that I don’t see especially in the days that we’re living right now with Kobe and what not everybody’s wondering and there’s all this unknown out there and I think it brings health to that level of I kind of understand understanding but it’s at the level of awareness we’ve gotta always be aware of our own health and whatever may come our way and so I think this is a great technology as a but the other so with that what I’d like to see and this isn’t something that I think where I’m not sure that this will be possible given the way that health it is managed in in the country but one of the things I think is missing is a baseline of your health rate if you’re if you’re if you’re testing for something I may have a higher protein comes concentration of something that Jack does just and my natural life so if I if I take a test and I see that it’s elevated it may not actually be elevated for me or maybe I’m low and it it is elevated into the normal range and having a a baseline understanding of your own levels as you throughout your life would I think be very useful in in and making sure that you’re targeting the treatments for you personally and it would be nice if our instrument could be part of that lifelong testing sounds sounds wonderful so the new device for young start ups that I mean again to the all the benefits because of of receive from working with a C. C. in the bioscience lab what what what advice would you give both maybe two people interested in science and also just you know opportunities of growth of a business what what advice would you give

I say find a team that you trust and people who know what you don’t know because you’re there your new family you’re going to be spending all your time with them you need to make sure that you’re gonna work well together and that you can build together so yeah I am a chime in about the more a personal reflection maybe about what is stocked up means to me and what I think it would be helpful for somebody else I have started as a PhD student it was mostly like it’s my project I need to solve it to get my PhD are I need to figure out the problem but in the startup world I’ve been slowly getting used to that top that I’m not going to find an answer but there is an on set out there I have to find that I have to find the person who knows the answer or find a way to get it quicker and so it’s kind of like our it just is a mind shift that I think may need to come earlier than that earlier in the start up founders to talk real art try to find the answer leave no stone unturned so I love it so right now our awareness is all over Kobe does this have any application or this kind of testing have any application towards you know the future of covert or other types of diseases like that so H. sure we can so because it is a very interesting disease as you may all know from hearing about it on the news it is fascinating from a scientific perspective so it’s very challenging to us to talk about that specifically

however one of the things that were very interested in is how your body response has it your immune response to things like cove it and how you present small proteins on your cell surface when they’ve been infected so one of the things that we are really focused on is how you can use that information to tell are you are you sick and what kind of sick are you and is there a specific treatment targeting those proteins that you’re displaying that could help you feel less sick and so within that area code that I think that sort of the that that’s what we’re interested in Jack do you so are yes so I’ll just piggy back on the couple of things Angela mentioned there again like they’re so short term short term important critical need far diseases like cold wet and there’s also a little bit arm chair I look back at how these infectious diseases propagate and jumped species to one to another so I think proteins again like as I’ve mentioned to you is kind of like a very important biomolecules and hi this is Michael Bennett displayed these proteins what Angelo was referring to is our work on developing these these things called the peptide vaccines are it’s another way of looking at my crop how could you trigger an immune system to be to recognize that there’s just a cold infection arm so maybe could be start to I have a a few early test on back what are the peptides are what are these proteins that the immune system recognizes and determines that it does go but I’m not so that is one aspect of the are kind of like working on the shot down to let’s see the longer again like an interesting I’m Charles section on this is circa disco bid Maliki objects discovered virus infects cells through dust proteins called despite proteins

and despite proteins you can think up there must like these three little try Marsa three little trident’s that go and latch on to a cell and that’s how cold it actually infects people armed dot tridentata art is actually decorated but sugars and many a times the sugars like blocked their immune system from even recognizing there’s a body has been an amazing capability of clearing these wireless a stock if only they could get to that are tried in part of the course structure that’s the protein powder for being decorated by these sugars makes a black a camouflage and so this is where like in our one of our goals and one of the things that we can do and our technology is to actually figure out like what type of sugar decorations out there how do we blocked unblock the sugars are and and what kind of like a much cleaner strategies far these infectious disease Clarence from the body and self that is really a really good explanation I’m so I appreciate that explains sells it in my mind I was thinking about like an uncle man in the trident in and hitting a cell and is all covered with these tools look like sugars and and you are over here I do not find Worcestershire because we need to get it that tried an offer and so that’s what it sounds like it’s that’s exactly cool stuff really cool stuff well I really have enjoyed chatting with both of you

I think I think the work that you guys are doing is incredible congratulations on this path and just starting down a path there’s no testing for you like I’m going to go create this test and it and you know on behalf of people like myself who are always interested in learning more about how to be healthier the work that you guys are doing is just incredible and needed so thank you very much for for doing that thank you very much for being on the show we appreciate you taking the time to thank you thank you for for asking it was a lot of fun and and were excited to support local businesses or podcasts or yeah thank you again Angela Jack for joining us today and teach us more about proteins I really love the work that you’re doing and and cheering you on wishing you much success for the benefit of us all if you’d like to learn more about a person please visit the link in our show notes size of the mall you’re always greeted a partnership between founding media and the Austin community college bioscience incubator to learn more about the ACC bioscience incubator please visit the link in our show notes if you like what you hear on the show please be sure to subscribe and share it with a friend or family member