Neighboring UConn TIP start-ups, Arome Science and Feel Good Lab, sign a distribution agreement leveraging their respective strengths, and know-how
UConn TIP entrepreneurs Alexey Melnik and Ryan Gresh '09 (ENG) partnered their respective companies to market and sell microbial wipes.
Inspired by his own struggles with gastrointestinal illness, Alexey Melnik developed an innovative new product to identify the source of microbial imbalances in the gut, a root cause of many gastrointestinal (GI) diseases and disorders.
But Melnik and his co-founders at Arome Science, Inc. had a problem. No one at the biotech start-up based knew the first thing about marketing.
Melnik, an analytical chemist and former research scientist at UConn, brought his dilemma to Ryan McMillian, Director of Venture Development at UConn's Technical Incubator Program (TIP). McMillian put him in touch with Ryan Gresh, the co-founder and CEO of the Feel Good Lab, a holistic health start-up also based at TIP in Farmington. Then synergy happened.
Gresh has distinguished himself as a skilled promoter of his plant-based pain relief products, which were featured in July on a segment of Good Morning America. He is also adept at recognizing opportunities.
"Alexey is one of the biggest experts in the world on the gut microbiome," says Gresh. "That's a huge focus here at the Feel Good Lab. His product is one of the most exciting things I've seen in 10 years of doing what I'm doing."
The two companies recently signed a distribution agreement, under which the Feel Good Lab will market and sell Arome's new product, S'Wipe, as part of a kit that also includes a Feel Good Lab food inflammation test that measures how the body and immune system react to different foods.
"What aligned the most between us is that we are helping to change the way to look at health and giving people a tool to be proactive instead of reactive," says Gresh. "Without TIP, this never would have happened."
Before arriving at UConn, Melnik worked as a research assistant in the lab of Pieter Dorrestein, a pioneer in the emerging field of metabolomics at the University of California San Diego. Metabolomics is the study of small molecules called metabolites that are created when the body breaks down food, drugs, chemicals, or tissue.
Melnik's work at the lab focused on developing analytical tools and methods to explore human and microbial chemistry through a variety of projects. He and his Arome co-founders have co-authored more than 300 articles, which have been cited more than 50,000 times.
Melnik left his position in UConn's Chemistry Department in August to focus full time on his work at Arome, where he is CEO. Dorrestein, a professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at UCSD, who also directs its Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center, and Institute for Metabolic Medicine, is a co-founder of the company with Melnik and UConn Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Alexander Aksenov.
S'Wipe offers a simpler, more convenient approach to collecting the fecal samples needed to assess gut health. The method uses a system that integrates the collection process into the user's daily routine, employing a novel collection manifold that works much like toilet paper. The user preserves the sample in a solution, which eliminates the need and associated costs of refrigerating samples during storage and transportation.
Scientists rely primarily on two analytical techniques – mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy – to conduct studies on metabolites. These sophisticated tools are used to detect and quantify a wide range of metabolites with a high degree of precision in an array of applications that include the early detection of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders, monitoring ecosystem health and pollutants in water and soil, and assessing the impact of different diets on human health. Using the technique to track trends in gut metabolites can offer actionable insights into an individual's gut health over time - data that can inform personalized dietary interventions.
Molecules known as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) – particularly acetate, propionate, and butyrate -are the most studied biomarkers of gut health and play vital roles in maintaining gut integrity, regulating immune function, and influencing overall health. Imbalances in the regulation of SCFA production have been linked to various conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease.
Fiber, which gut microbes eat, is one of the best-known ways to keep the gut healthy, but there are a multitude of other factors that can contribute to gut disease and disorders, from the herbicides and pesticides used to grow the food to the toxins used to preserve it. Glyphosate, a widely used herbicide linked to inflammation, is one example.
An intervention using fiber is what helped Melnik resolve his gut issues. The breakthrough followed a four-year bout of GI distress that resulted in visits to 10 different doctors and three trips to the ER, none of which produced a diagnosis.
Working with the team at Arome, he was able to resolve his condition. By aggregating models from clinical trials on fiber, they created a personalized regime of supplements that brought him relief.
"In a short span of six weeks, I was able to restore balance," he says.
The kits will initially be sold through physicians and GI doctors and eventually direct to consumers. Each S'Wipe kit will contain three wipes and three tubes of solution for preserving the samples, which are sent to Arome Science for analysis. In the future, Melnik and Gresh envision adding interventional dietary supplements to the list of products under their agreement.
Simplifying the process will also enable large-scale gut studies, says Aksenov. Traditional sampling methods, which can be cumbersome and objectionable to users, have been a bottleneck in the research process. A few studies already enabled by S'Wipe suggest the new technology is positively impacting the problem.
"The message is that consumer access and research go hand in hand," says Aksenov.
"This partnership came together through the TIP ecosystem in which both companies realized how they could help each other," adds McMillian. "The Feel Good Lab has built a robust direct-to-consumer business and is always looking for new products for their customers. Arome has amazing science but has never sold online before. TIP is creating an ecosystem of collaboration here."
