This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Roman Gelman, CEO and co-founder of eMBR Genomics.
The Madison-based business is developing liquid biopsy tests for cancer and other conditions, “meaning someone can walk into their doctor’s office and from one blood draw, be able to determine if they have a number of cancers or other diseases,” Gelman said.
He discusses the company’s focus on “molecular residual disease” to assess the effectiveness of various treatments for cancer or other diseases. The name eMBR Genomics — pronounced like ember — references mid-body remnants, a leftover cellular material linked to cell division.
“While the body has natural cells that divide, it’s very few … the thing that divides the most is cancer,” Gelman said. “So the mid-body remnant is a very interesting target for research and also diagnostics, and that’s the premise for our business.”
One of the company’s fo-founders, UW-Madison Prof. Ahna Skop, has spent years studying mid-body remnants, and the startup aims to transition the results of her research into a marketable product.
Disease screening would be based on “libraries” of biomarkers that can indicate the presence of cancer, Gelman explains.
“We need to build out those libraries for [mid-body remnants] and that’s what we’re in the process of doing,” he said. “So our partnerships are focused predominantly on that. We know how to isolate them, we know how to analyze them, and then we’re going to be correlating them to those libraries.”
In the coming years, Gelman says the company could help more people identify cancer earlier by offering a less invasive, more affordable testing method.
“That’s what got me into the space … contributing to something that is good for humanity,” he said.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
