Hey HN! Wanted to introduce you to Evera! We are the at home stem cell banking startup out of Harvard. Through just a simple urine sample, we allow you to preserve your youngest cells for future therapies!
It's known that over time, your stem cells (iPSCs) accumulate more damaging mutations with age (https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3749). However, seeing how all legacy methods of stem cell extraction were incredibly invasive (ex: bone marrow surgical extraction, blood draw), we wanted to create a way to bank your youngest cells in a 100% noninvasive way. We've thus optimized a method of converting urine derived cells to stem cells and have developed a novel collection device that allows your sample to be preserved via transport over the mail. Evera finally allows anyone, regardless of age, to invest in their future health and longevity! Happy to answer any questions you may have in the comments below :)
Hey this sounds like a super cool venture that you all are working on. However, I was a bit interested in how the process works as you age. For instance, from what I understand Evera extracts our youngest cells. So would I be able to start banking cells at age 50 or 60 compared to say age 20 and would there be any differences in the cells collected?
Nice question! Ideally we all bank as soon as possible. However, there are still benefits regardless of what age you decide to preserve your cells. Your cells are the youngest today. They'll be older and more damaged tomorrow. See this paper (https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3749) which details how there is an increase in harmful damaging mutations with the specific cells we are interested in as a result of age.
The cells in your body at age 60 are going to carry more harmful mutations than the cells you had when you were 20. See this paper (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3836174/) for a description of the molecular aging process. Let me know if you have any more questions!
Good stuff! Really excited to see this launch. Clearly a large benefit of the service for Evera is the large collection of stem cells. How do you anticipate the drug discoveries and advancements will differ from discoveries made by genomics companies like 23andMe? What labs are you currently working with for this work?
Nice question! The main thing to keep in mind here is that unlike companies such as 23andMe who collect dead saliva cells, we are able to preserve living cells which are far more valuable for drug discovery efforts and therapeutic development. We are currently working with two labs at Harvard and one at Stanford to advance our therapeutic and disease modeling pipeline. We're making tech that will allow us to model complex diseases completely in-vitro as well as therapies to replace damaged or lost tissue!
However, I want to make it clear that our focus will always be towards our users and their privacy. Users will always be given the choice if they want to contribute their sample to our research initiatives. Samples will not automatically be used for research unless there is explicit consent. Users will also have the ability to remove their sample from our research pipeline at any time. We take privacy and consent extremely seriously.
Additionally, we are currently setting up infrastructure that will allow users to get rewarded if they do contribute their sample to research. We believe it is our right to reward those that contribute to our research efforts. Stay tuned for details.
Hi Evera, I’m curious about my medical privacy. How can you guarantee that through this service? Additionally, how do you plan on generating revenue? Through what kind of business model?
To ensure the confidentiality and privacy of your data and sample, we separate your personally identifiable information from sample information and simultaneously use multiple layers of encryption and cryptography. Your sample and associated data cannot be associated with you individually. Furthermore, our facility is monitored 24/7 with top of the line security measures. We believe that your sample is your property! We're working with one of the nation's most renowned biobanks that actually handles some of the NIH's samples as well!
In terms of revenue, the thing that sets us apart from companies like 23andMe or AncestryDNA is that we actually generate money through a D2C approach instead of having to rely on contracts from big pharma. Users pay an initial sample collection fee of 299 and then a yearly banking fee of 99. Notice that this is much less than traditional cord blood banks.
It's known that over time, your stem cells (iPSCs) accumulate more damaging mutations with age (https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3749). However, seeing how all legacy methods of stem cell extraction were incredibly invasive (ex: bone marrow surgical extraction, blood draw), we wanted to create a way to bank your youngest cells in a 100% noninvasive way. We've thus optimized a method of converting urine derived cells to stem cells and have developed a novel collection device that allows your sample to be preserved via transport over the mail. Evera finally allows anyone, regardless of age, to invest in their future health and longevity! Happy to answer any questions you may have in the comments below :)