On April 28th, Jonathon's new business, Wasatch Biolabs, had their official launch party. This has been a long time coming and a lot of work has gone into it. Jonathon and his co-worker, Tim, first started batting around ideas over a year ago about a method to quickly sequence cell free DNA in the blood using a relatively new technology called Nanopore. Tim and his graduate student, Chad, had the initial idea about how to detect Alzheimers by sequencing neuronal DNA in the blood, and Jonathon came up with ideas on how to select the regions of DNA to be sequenced and how to analyze the data.
Tim and Chad already had some investors interested in the potential of the technology, so Jonathon became part of what would end up being a group of 7 people to co-found a company that they named Wasatch Biolabs. They have 2 scientists (including Jonathon), 2 clinical lab specialists, 2 investors, and the graduate student who came up with the original idea. Jonathon's official title is VP of Science and Technology. I think the title fits his name and skills so well!
The investors were so excited about the prospects of the company that they put in a lot of money to help build a lab in Heber. The building took many months, but by the end of April, it was finally ready to go. Since Jonathon had to leave for Brazil on May 1st, they wanted to have the launch party before he left.
On the day of the launch, we went up early to get things ready for the event. It was great to have professional photographers, videographers, party planners, etc. to make it a great launch. When it was time for the open house, they invited all the guests to the main offices for refreshments and a brief introduction to the company, and then took everyone on a tour of the lab space. Jonathon was part of the tour and took time to describe the various techniques being used and how the process worked. He was amazing and will be a huge asset to this company.
We have high hopes for the potential benefits this technology can bring to the world and those suffering from a variety of diseases, but we also clearly understand that we are not out of the woods yet. Science and start-ups are both difficult situations where a lot of things can go wrong. The company hasn't officially sold any products yet, and the technology still has a few bugs and things to iron out, but it sure feels like something special could happen. We will see what the future holds, but so far it has been a huge learning experience and an exciting journey.
Below are some of the photos and videos from the event.
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