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How Veravas Brings Clarity to Diagnostics by Cleaning Samples · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome back to Startup Health Now, the podcast where we celebrate the entrepreneurs and the innovators who are transforming health. I'm your host, Logan Plaster.
• 0:07
  [instrumental music] When you or I get a blood test of any kind really, we can take for granted how good of a test it actually is.
• 0:16
  We might get our results from a LabCorp or a Quest and hope that our physician can offer us some insights based on the numbers.
• 0:24
  When you're healthy, that's all fine and good, but when things go south, when you're really sick or have a concern about a disease, those blood test results start to have more weight.
• 0:33
  That's when you start to learn that many blood tests have false positives and false negatives, or the tests only put you within a range, kind of a gray area telling you what might happen but not what is happening.
• 0:46
  John Forrest, the CEO and co-founder of Veravas and my guest today, is tackling this problem of diagnostic test accuracy.
• 0:54
  When you're testing something in blood or saliva or whatever the sample type is, it's a very complicated ma- uh, matrix.
• 1:02
  There are a lot of things going on in, in a blood sample, uh, that can interfere with a, uh, a diagnostic test.
• 1:10
  As you'll hear in our conversation, John and his team have patented a technology called Veribind, which essentially cleans blood samples.
• 1:18
  By removing impurities, they've been able to increase test accuracy and turn a test previously prone to false positives and gray zones into a simple yes or no diagnostic finding.
• 1:31
  They're using this technology to improve the detection of Alzheimer's, but it's really so much more than that.
• 1:37
  Veribind is a platform technology that could improve the accuracy of a host of diagnostic tests, and not just in blood either.
• 1:45
  It could improve diagnostic accuracy from saliva samples as well, which is much easier for older patients to manage on a regular basis. I'm excited for you all to meet John Forrest through this conversation.
• 1:57
  I was impressed by his experience. He's been in the health tech market long enough to know what works and what doesn't. He's also a founder who just gets stuff done.
• 2:05
  Probably a trait he got from his father, a chief master sergeant in the Air Force. John has recruited an impressive team, and they seem poised to make 2025 a breakout year. Let's get into the conversation.
• 2:18
  [upbeat music] John Forrest, CEO and co-founder of Veravas, thanks for joining me today. It's good to be with you, Logan. So you've got...
• 2:29
  You know, there's a lot of, lot of companies in health tech, they have sort of typical health techy names. I like the name Veravas. It's got a punchy meaning to it. I know it's related to truth in some way.
• 2:40
  So tell me w- where the name comes from and how it relates to what you're building, and then we'll kind of unwind the actual product. We're pretty proud of the name. We really, uh, do like it.
• 2:49
  Uh, where it comes from is, is Latin. You know, uh, Vera, as you already have assumed, it means truth. Um, and vas is kind of vessel or vase or, i- in this case, uh, a collection tube.
• 3:01
  You know, the purpose of Veravas wh- when we, uh, got started was really to have accurate testing, being able to detect things in low abundance, uh, so that we can detect things early, but it really is about accuracy, and so that's what Veravas is really supposed to represent.
• 3:19
  Okay. So blood testing, truth in the vessel, truth in the blood testing. We'll get to all of that. Let's back it up a little bit. Um, have you always been in diagnostic testing?
• 3:29
  What's been your sort of entrepreneurial journey? Well, I, I come from a, a military family. Um, I, I don't know, I've always had, um, I guess a, a, a strong sense of purpose and, you know, wanting to accomplish things.
• 3:43
  Yeah. And so after my father retired, he was an entrepreneur, so I became an entrepreneur, and I, uh, have been involved in a number of different startups. I al- What did he do, out of curiosity?
• 3:54
  Uh, he was a chief master sergeant in the Air Force, and he was in charge of our, uh, nuclear response in B-52s. Chief master sergeant is, is no joke. Yeah.
• 4:04
  And so it was like, "John," you know, you know, "get things done." At, at home as well as in the B-52s is what you're saying. Oh, it was, uh- He, he ran a tight ship... there was no distinction, you know? I... Yeah.
• 4:14
  [laughs] Okay.
• 4:16
  So no, uh, really, uh, in my career it's, it's been about, you know, startups, leading edge technology, and I've, I've done a number of, of different, uh, kinds of companies all in healthcare, uh, uh, starting out with electronic medical records and, and then, and then really, um, being in diagnostics.
• 4:34
  This is the first, uh, diagnostic company that I've been involved with. I have been, uh, I've done some pharmacy solutions with a chemotherapy robot, uh, which we had a nice exit. Uh, this is my first diagnostic company.
• 4:46
  I've learned a lot, and, um, and I'm glad that I chose this particular area to be in, uh, because there's so much that, that needs to be done. There's a lot... You know, in diagnostics there hasn't been...
• 5:00
  Before COVID, there wasn't a whole lot of innovation that really was going on, um, in, uh, diagnostics, and all you had it was the big players of, uh, LabCorp and Quest, and they kind of dominated the, uh, the space, but we didn't see a whole lot of changes.
• 5:16
  I felt like it was important for us to, to focus on accuracy, improve, uh, uh, diagnostics so that, uh, for early detection and hopefully to get faith and confidence back into diagnostics, and you, you do that by having the most accurate tests and, and, and, uh, doing, and leading the industry by having-...
• 5:40
  tests on the market. Okay, let me unpack that a little bit, 'cause you said that you, you'd noticed there was an appetite for some disruption, some innovation. We need to improve accuracy.
• 5:50
  Most people, uh, don't think about LabCorp and Quest as having a problem with accuracy. They just think, "Oh, I just gotta go in. It's very utilitarian. Just gotta give some blood, get some results."
• 6:00
  They don't think about what's happening. So pull back the curtain a little bit for us in terms of the problems that exist in lab technology that need to be addressed. There are accuracy problems.
• 6:11
  When, when you think about it, when you're testing something in blood or saliva or whatever the sample type is, it's a very complicated ma- uh, matrix.
• 6:20
  There are a lot of things going on in, in a blood sample, uh, that can interfere with a, uh, a diagnostic test.
• 6:28
  What our technology does is, um, instead of trying to block some of these interferences, uh, and substances that can, uh, provide a, a false result, whether it's a positive or a false positive or, or, or a false negative, or even a false normal, you need to first clean the sample.
• 6:46
  And this is, um, our patented technology that really, um, we think can revolutionize laboratory medicine.
• 6:53
  Because what our nanobead technology does is it first will capture all those substances that can ver- prevent us from seeing what's in the sample and capturing those biomarkers.
• 7:08
  And so by first capturing those interferences, removing them out of the sample, now you have a clean sample. Now we're able to capture these biomarkers that may be in low abundance.
• 7:21
  We use our beads again to capture those. We remove those from the sample, and what you have remaining is concentrated biomarkers in buffer or water.
• 7:31
  Really With that, I wa- I was just gonna say, with that, if that's all you have present, it's kind of hard to get it wrong. Interesting. And, and, um, and so that- Yeah...
• 7:39
  that sample transformation ha- is kind of like junk in, junk out. If you have quality in, you have quality out.
• 7:48
  By cleaning the sample and then capturing and enriching the biomarkers of interest, those are things that will make a difference, um, in diagnostic testing, and we've, uh, certainly done that, uh, in neuro, uh, degenerative, uh, uh, testing that we have.
• 8:05
  I'm, I'm sure folks in the lab testing world know all about this, but is there, is... Are you able to dumb down for me how big of a problem, uh, dirty samples [chuckles] occluded samples are?
• 8:16
  How big of a problem false positives and false negatives are?
• 8:19
  'Cause the average consumer might not be thinking about those numbers and, like, let's, uh, think about they understand air purification in relationship to the, to the toxins in the air or the dust in the air.
• 8:29
  They think about water purification in terms of the minerals and things that are in the water.
• 8:34
  So help me understand the current state and, and, and how, yeah, how many issues there are in the samples that have to be fixed. I'll try to pro- I'll pro-provide you with an, uh, example.
• 8:46
  I mean, we have, um, you know, false positives and false negatives all the time, but, um, yeah, we just as- assume that everything is, is correct. I'll give you a, a really good example, and that's biotin.
• 8:58
  Uh, biotin is a, is a supplement that we take. Uh, it's good for hair, skin, and nails. Uh, and, uh, biotin ha- uh, is, um, typically or is very commonly used in about 85% of, of diagnostic tests.
• 9:12
  But if I take supplements of biotin and I have that in my system and in my blood, right?
• 9:19
  And I get a blood sample, and I have a bunch of biotin in my sample, uh, because the diagnostic tests use biotin in their, uh, in that, in that technology, that high level of biotin can throw a test, uh, off. Okay.
• 9:33
  That's just one example, but there's lots of other, um, examples that I can, uh, look at. Like, well, for example, heterophilic interferences. Um, if I, um, you know, mouse, um, you know, our bodies are very resilient.
• 9:49
  We have antibodies against mice, uh, because we may be exposed to them in, in some way. Mm.
• 9:55
  Well, a lot of diagnostic tests use, you know, they insert the, uh, the, uh, the toxin of the mice, the mice develops antibodies.
• 10:03
  We use those antibodies in the diagnostic tests to measure whatever we're, um, you know, we're trying to, uh, detect. But if you have been exposed to mice, you have these antibodies, and these antibodies could- Mm...
• 10:15
  potentially interfere with that test. Okay. And so there are a lot of things that, um, uh, you know, we, we remove about 15 different things, but another big one is autoantibodies. Okay. You know, if I have...
• 10:29
  Well, even for Alzheimer's, right? So Alzheimer's, um, you have a misfolded protein that's in the brain. It does get into the blood. Well, it's not supposed to be in the blood.
• 10:41
  Well, and what your body does is it develops antibodies against that, uh, that protein, and it cleans it up.
• 10:49
  Well, if you have these autoantibodies that are going after the target that you want to measure, it can throw off a test. Yeah.
• 10:57
  Uh, and so a- and if I'm a LabCorp or Quest, and it's nothing a- against them, um, but they're not very close to what's going on with the clinical picture of the, of the patient- Yeah... because they are remote.
• 11:12
  You know, uh, I'm, I'm in a clinic environment or a hospital environment, and I don't necessarily look at the... I can't really see the whole clinical picture.
• 11:20
  All they're doing is providing a result, and, uh, it is sometimes challenging to see those, um, uh, those problematic, um, yeah, uh, testing just be- because of the nature of, of what they're doing.Yeah.
• 11:36
  Okay, so the nuts and bolts of this make a ton of sense. We understand the idea of purifying a sample, getting better results, fewer false positives, fewer false negatives. Makes sense. Mm-hmm.
• 11:45
  Let's talk about the business itself. You are, you're a startup. My f- my mind immediately goes to the idea that it seems like you're coming up against some pretty big enterprise and incumbent players. Sure.
• 11:56
  Um, what's that like? And what is your, what's your go-to-market strategy? Well, uh, yes. Certainly, there are a lot of, um, you know, large companies that are out there. Everybody's trying to solve this problem.
• 12:09
  Um, you know, it wasn't, uh, too long ago that the only way to, uh, diagnose Alzheimer's was an autopsy.
• 12:16
  You know, so this is a, uh, a new and developing marketplace, uh, that's available, and we just recently had, uh, some, you know, some success, uh, in the market, uh, with blood-based biomarkers looking at, um, yeah, measuring, um, measuring, you know, these proteins and, and for Alzheimer's.
• 12:38
  Mm. Well, um, you know, it is a challenge because a lot of these big companies, you know, will have a test, and they'll, uh, bring it to market. Uh, but those, those tests aren't very accurate.
• 12:47
  There's, there's a 20% gray zone, uh- Mm... that's, that's out there that are...
• 12:54
  Uh, what I mean by gray zone is that there's an indeterminable zone of, you know, if your, if your result comes in this zone, well, you really can't use the blood test because y- you know, you might have to ref- uh, uh, reflex to an amyloid PET scan.
• 13:09
  Yeah. Uh, well, uh, even if you're successful at being 90% accurate of 80%, you're really only about 70 something percent ac- Yeah... uh, uh, ability to, to, to find it.
• 13:22
  What we are gonna do differently and what our test does because of our purification technology, uh, we purify this misfolded protein, and then we can see if it's physiologically active.
• 13:35
  It's very unique and different, and this is why we're gonna be successful with this because when we, uh, purify that, that protein and we look, uh, and see if it's binding to a normal protein which is the hallmark of disease, if that binding event happens, then you have, uh, uh, a tauopathy, and, and we know that that leads to neurodegeneration.
• 13:58
  That enables us to detect, uh, the, uh, Alzheimer's prior to tau tangles, uh, in the earliest form of seeding when it, uh, when it begins in the brain.
• 14:11
  And that early detection pre-symptomatically will make a difference because now we can, uh, test a population. We don't have to wait for- Mm...
• 14:22
  symptoms, uh, which may be, you know, kind of late in the process 'cause you're already having a lot of neurodegeneration before it, uh, before that, uh, problem, uh, starts to manifest. We can detect it early. And, um-
• 14:37
  Yeah... as you know, when you detect it early, you can- you have a better chance of having a good outcome. [upbeat music] Hey, a quick plug about StartUp Health before we get to the second half of this interview.
• 14:49
  Uh, we have been organizing mission-aligned networks called Health Moonshot Communities in order to level up the world's most ambitious healthcare entrepreneurs.
• 14:58
  We've been doing this work since 2011 and have helped more than 500 companies from more than 30 countries.
• 15:05
  Membership in StartUp Health is open exclusively to founders and CEOs in health tech, biotech, and life sciences who are dedicated to solving the biggest health challenges of our time.
• 15:16
  You can learn more about the benefits of membership, and you can read hundreds of success stories, member testimonials all at startuphealth.com.
• 15:24
  [upbeat music] What I, what I hear you saying, so, uh, you know, I've interviewed a lot of folks who are in the Alzheimer's moonshot, a lot of blood-based biomarkers.
• 15:35
  Um, what I hear you saying is this is complimentary to a lot of other approaches 'cause you're improving any other approach. There's a piece of this that could be complimentary.
• 15:45
  Um, are you also developing your own test, uh, in the market, or are you a platform, a tool for other tests, or both? It's both. Um, we are... do have a platform that we can make other tests better. Uh, we can- Okay...
• 15:59
  uh, but we are a platform that, uh, we developed to make, um, original tests, our own tests better. Okay. All right. And so, uh, the, the first test for tau pathology is, uh, revolutionary. It's not...
• 16:14
  We don't look at it as a compare, uh, uh, a competition to the p-tau217 test that's out because it's really, those tests are correlating to amyloid plaques. Okay.
• 16:26
  You know, plaques, um, don't necessarily lead to Alzheimer's, uh, disease, but tau pathology does. And, uh- Yeah... so that's very, very different. And we are in, actually, we don't view these blood tests as competitors.
• 16:42
  We view, uh, we actually are an alternative and a, and complementary to a tau PET scan. We com- we, um, actually tau PETs, uh, is a, is the gold standard. Uh, and, and but they're very, very expensive.
• 16:57
  They're very inaccessible. Um, our test, uh, uh, is 94%, uh, uh, correlative, uh, to a tau PET scan. So we could be a screen to s- uh, to justify the expense of a tau PET.
• 17:13
  But just in general, um, be- being able to detect if you have this early, early seeding event- Yeah... it's going on, we can detect it long before symptoms, and that is the, the, the difference that we're gonna make.
• 17:28
  Yeah. Now, what's really interesting too, Logan, is that, um, we have a new test that we're gonna be, uh, introducing very soon, uh, for amyloid pathology. Okay.
• 17:37
  And it will be the most accurate test for amyloid pathology, and it correlates to amyloid PET. Okay. So we'll have two-Blood-based, uh, blo- uh, biomarkers for amyloid and for tau.
• 17:49
  And then what's really exciting is later this year we're gonna do this in saliva. Okay. And, and what are the advantages of, of saliva? Well, saliva is an easy-to-use, um, or easy-to-collect sample type.
• 18:04
  You know, so now we can- Do it at home, do it yourself. Yeah... do it at home, do it yourself. You don't have to have a blood draw.
• 18:10
  You know, a lot of elderly patients, um, you know, they have, you know, har- the, you know, their blood veins may not be good for collecting blood. Yeah. It may be hard to find a vein. If- Yeah...
• 18:21
  you know, it's people, they get poked all the time for various o- other things. Yeah. And a, a good swish and spit sample type makes it really easy for them, you know, to collect that sample.
• 18:33
  Uh, and it's also very good for ongoing monitoring, uh, as well. So that easy and accessible sample type, we think is gonna be, uh, a real game changer. Yeah. Let me switch gears for a second here. Um,
• 18:47
  like I said, I've talked to a lot of folks who are in the Alzheimer's field, and I often ask them about early detection because even though you just said, "Hey, earlier you catch it, the better," you still have a huge swath of the, of the world who actually doesn't wanna know earlier.
• 19:03
  They're too, they're, they're too afraid. They're, they don't actually believe there's anything they can do. And so there's a lot that has to happen, um, in terms of the stigma of Alzheimer's.
• 19:14
  Um, how do you sort of think about that, and, and what do you, like, what would you even tell a friend or relative about learning about their chances of Alzheimer's early and why that would be a, a truly good thing?
• 19:27
  Well, just, um, you know, just a recent study that came out that, you know, 50, uh, uh, over age 55 about 43% of, of patients will go on to develop dementia. That's a huge, huge- Yeah... uh, percentage.
• 19:42
  Uh, and w- and we have a, a very big and growing, um, you know, older p- you know, you know, population.
• 19:50
  And so it's, um- Do you agree with my premise that most of those people today would say, "I don't wanna know what's coming"? That people- I, I disagree. I'm gonna tell you why. Okay.
• 20:00
  I mean, the Alzheimer's, uh, Association did a s- a, a study. Uh, and, uh, they found that 78% of patients would want to know- Hm... if they could do something about it. If they could do, okay. That's the issue. Yeah.
• 20:14
  That's the issue that a lot of people are, uh, are questioning. And yes, there are not a, um, a lot of good therapeutics that are out there.
• 20:22
  There are some that, uh, uh, have been introduced, and it's great to have, you know, some tools in the toolbox. But really what, um, some, there's some promising efforts.
• 20:31
  You look at, uh, the FINGER study that's going on, um, uh, uh, for example, is showing that just lifestyle changes, you know, just eating right, exercise- So powerful... you know, lifting a muscle.
• 20:45
  Uh, there's about, you know, uh, there's a, a, there are lots of different, um, uh, protocols that are out there. But, um, just healthy living can pot- uh, potentially have an impact. And if you're...
• 21:00
  I- it's kind of like if, if I'm aware, if I have this awareness, if I know that, okay, I've got it going on. And, and by the way, our tests are not showing risk. Our, our tests are showing you already have it. Okay.
• 21:12
  It is coming. You need to do something about it. Wow. Okay.
• 21:15
  And I think it's a wake-up call that, that will say, "Hey, you have, um, this pathology going on, uh, uh, in the brain, um, and now is the time to do something about it."
• 21:27
  And I think if, if people understand that they, in fact, are empowered to do something, they will. There's an interesting correlation here, I think, with pre-diabetes.
• 21:38
  The understanding that something could be, could be coming, and we have this population of 100 million people with pre-diabetes in the United States.
• 21:46
  And, um, and yet there's still this great education campaign that has to take place. I mean, you bring up the FINGER study. There's so much that can be done.
• 21:56
  But it's an interesting to, it's interesting to think about the sort of, uh, hand-in-glove, um, innovation we need between the therapies and the education, you know? Yeah.
• 22:08
  You know, you know, you think about diabetes, and you think about, you know, or risk for heart disease, uh, some good examples.
• 22:15
  You know, everybody has high trig- you know, may have high triglycerides or ha- you know, or, you know, have, um, uh, you know, type 2 diabetes.
• 22:24
  And they don't, uh, they don't really associate it too much with, oh, every- everybody has it. It's just a risk factor. Yeah. I think if it, if you're dealing with cancer or you're dealing with Alzheimer's- Mm-hmm...
• 22:38
  now it matters. Yeah. You know, I have to do something.
• 22:41
  And in fact, um, you know, my mother has Alzheimer's, so I, it's, it's very personal, you know, to me and, you know, um, and I, and I think about, um, you know, what impact that it, it could have, you know, for me.
• 22:55
  I want to know if, if I have it, you know, early because it, you know, there are some, uh, hereditary, um, uh, implications.
• 23:02
  Um, you know, but if, um, I'd much r- actually, I'd rather much rather have a cancer than I would a- Alzheimer's because if I have cancer, I can at least, okay, I'm gonna, I've got a plan.
• 23:12
  It's either gonna work or it's not. You know, I can be, um, uh, more focused. But if I have Alzheimer's and the impact that, that you have to your family, not remembering names.
• 23:23
  You know, your family may not be able to remember you. Uh, you could have, you could be a burden.
• 23:28
  Uh, there's so many implications to having Alzheimer's that, you know, I think it's really super important for us, and it's w- it's our mission.
• 23:38
  If we can detect it early, we can prevent all that pain and all that effort, um, because now we can, if we can detect it early and when patients can, uh, do the most good-Then we can truly make a difference, and that's what- that's why we started the company.
• 23:56
  We really wanted to make a difference in a big space. Mm-hmm.
• 23:59
  Um, our technology can be applied to other types of, uh, of, uh, of testing, not just for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and other things, but for cancer.
• 24:10
  We als- we have a, a partnership, um, that we're already doing to use our technology for cancer.
• 24:15
  But, um, if we can de- again, if we can detect early, and we can do it in a sample type that makes it, you know, easily accessible, we can make a difference, and that's, you know, truly, uh, why we come to work every day.
• 24:29
  And every day that our, our test is not being used, it's a day that, uh, it's a day missed because we, you know, we need to get it out there, and that's our mission right now because we have, uh, just started commercializing our tau pathology test.
• 24:46
  Uh, and now is the time that you can find out if you have this going on in the brain early so that you can do something about it. It's not as scary as you might think- Yeah...
• 24:57
  uh, because, um, it's just finding out if you, um, you know, if you need to do something and take action or not. Yeah. You referenced the finger study, and I've seen the numbers.
• 25:09
  They are incredible how much you can affect your, that long-term mental health, uh, brain health through basic nutrition, activity, social connection. It's, it's, uh, it's amazing.
• 25:22
  I mean, I feel like it's, like, 20, 30% slowing or it's like the numbers are really significant. It's actually 43% can be, uh- Wow... of cases can be prevented- That's crazy... by changing your behavior.
• 25:34
  But you know what? Amazing. Um, I need, I need an alarm clock. I need something to say- Yeah... "Hey, a siren." Yep. "I've got this. I've gotta do something." Yeah.
• 25:43
  And, and that's what we hope to provide is an early warning so that you can do something.
• 25:49
  And that's why it's so important what you said earlier, that you are actually detecting pathology, actual pathology, and not the, um, the predilection towards a disease, uh, the, the directional accuracy but actually at [laughs] what's happening in the sample.
• 26:04
  Which is, you know, let's, let's... Uh, I'd like to de- dive into that just, uh, for a second because that's really, really important. Um, other diagnostic tests are looking for a level of something, a level of-
• 26:17
  Mm-hmm... uh, of p-tau or what have, what have you.
• 26:20
  Well, uh, uh, that's it's, it's good to know that, but what happens is, is that it, um, I might then be susceptible to com- you know, like, ethnic, uh, variances, uh, or comorbidities.
• 26:34
  If I have renal disease, you know, uh, I might have a higher number than, uh, than if I don't. Yeah.
• 26:40
  And so those numbers you have to have almost a, an algorithm to, to see what they all mean based on, you know, the different factors.
• 26:48
  Uh, what our test is measuring is, is that misfolded protein binding to, you know, to the normal protein which is the seeding event that takes place in, in, uh, tau pathology? It's a yes/no answer. Mm.
• 27:02
  It's either it does or it doesn't. And, um, and those things aren't, we believe, is not, um, um, uh, an issue with our test. We need to do lots more studies to prove that it's not going to have any impact.
• 27:18
  But we, we, um, we believe that it won't. And, um, by having a yes/no answer, that also helps providers, uh, in, in knowing is... you know, do they have this t- uh, going on in the brain or, or do they not? Yeah.
• 27:36
  And so it, hopefully, it's an easier way f- to aid in diagnosis. I mean, the more I hear you s- uh, talk about this, th- uh, the more I'm seeing that it's not just about a few more percentage points of accuracy.
• 27:49
  It's about a person taking action or not taking action.
• 27:52
  Because if I believe I'm in a gray zone, there's so much in me, uh, that's pushing back against taking action that, that I'm gonna take the path of least resistance, and I'm gonna tell myself I'm in a gray zone.
• 28:03
  So to, to get over the hump in terms of the yes/no answer is, in my mind, I'm thinking it's like, it's action versus no action in many ways. It, it, it makes it a, a more black and white. Yeah. Yeah. It's yes.
• 28:18
  It's yes or no. Well, John, this is very exciting. There's a lot more you could've, uh, laid out for us, I know.
• 28:24
  And what's so cool about this is that purifying samples applies to basically every-- I mean, [laughs] every part of diagnostics, like, it sounds like these nanobeads and all this stuff you're doing is really a platform that, you know, has these extensive implications.
• 28:39
  And so it's gonna be exciting to see where that goes.
• 28:41
  But obviously, starting in Alzheimer's is, is amazing and, and, um, I hope that soon I'll have a blood panel that I can take that will sort of keep me abreast of, of how my brain is doing. And so- Well, Logan- Yeah...
• 28:54
  you know, you can test today. Really? Okay. We have a panel today. Um, talk to your- Okay... physician. They can sign up, uh, you know, on our website.
• 29:03
  Uh, they, uh, so that they-- If you want to take our test, uh, that's available today, and I would encourage everyone to talk to their physician. Okay.
• 29:12
  Sign up, uh, and we can, uh, we can get that answer for you and your loved ones, uh- So if, if somebody's watching this on YouTube-... of whether or not you have this early seeding event. Yeah.
• 29:22
  So if someone's listening to this or watching it on YouTube, they tell your, their primary care physician to go to your website, Verabos- Go to verabos.com... dot com. And, uh, sign up.
• 29:34
  Um, you know, uh, the physicians need to sign up because- Sure... we wanna make sure that physicians are ordering, you know, this test, not, uh, it's not a consumer test. Yeah.
• 29:44
  Because we want, uh, we want-- If, if it's positive, we wanna make sure that patients are gonna have a path- Absolutely...
• 29:51
  to be taken care of because this is not, uh, this is not just a, um, a, um, you know, a, a simple, you know, cholesterol- Blood test... test. This is Alzheimer's. Yeah. You know? It's a big deal. You, you...
• 30:03
  This is serious. Yeah. And, and, and we are-- we're taking a serious approach to this. We think we have a better method. Um, the, the results are, are showing really, really, a good, um, good correlation to, you know,
• 30:17
  tau PET and- Sure... our other test for amyloid PET. And, uh, and we're super excited about what we're doing, and, and hopefully we're gonna make a difference, uh, not just now but long into the future.
• 30:29
  Well, I appreciate you, John. Knowledge is both-- it is, can be intimidating, but it's also pow- it's also power. And so I do want that- Mm-hmm... knowledge in my back pocket. Um, I appreciate what you're doing.
• 30:41
  You're pushing on something that could really change healthcare, and that is really special, so thanks for explaining it to me today. Thanks very much, Logan. Good being with you. All right. Be well.
• 30:50
  [upbeat music] Thanks for listening to Startup Health NOW. We'll be back again with another episode next week. [upbeat music]