Vanity Biotech
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Kevin Ulmer, PhD, founder of SEQ, has a new company, Pavonis, that is applying genomics technology to find drug targets related to human morphology and appearance traits.
Kevin Ulmer, PhD, predicted the commercial revolution that would accompany the genomic one five years before it happened. In 1987, he founded SEQ Ltd. Others were also on the ball. Walter Gilbert, PhD, former CEO of Biogen Inc. and future force behind Myriad Genetics Inc. , had founded the short-lived Genome Corp. to pursue private sequencing of the human genome. While Gilbert took the view that it was best to simply start sequencing with existing technology, Ulmer laid his bets on first developing a faster sequencing method. Now, six years after the start of the Human Genome Project, SEQ still hasn't overcome its technological problems, while Ulmer has watched his colleagues go on to fame and fortune.
While SEQ was concerned with creating the state of the art, Ulmer's new company, Pavonis Inc. , will apply "state of the market" (i.e., widely-available) genomics technology to find drug targets related to human morphology and appearance traits. This is cosmeceutical genomics: looking for genes related to hair, skin and body shape.
Atlas Venture's Jean-Francois Formela, MD, who anted up $250,000 in seed money [See Deal].
Pavonis—the genus name for peacock—"is driven by the applications, not the technology," Ulmer concurs. But Pavonis isn't the first genomics-related cosmeceutical venture; now defunct Alopex Pharmaceuticals Inc. pursued the genomics of balding with positional cloning help from Sequana Therapeutics Inc.[See Deal]. But many believe genomics is a proven enabling tool in which advantage will accrue to companies who are therapeutically, not technologically focused. And with the $40 billion currently spent by individuals with discretionary dollars to improve the look of their hair and skin, commercial opportunities abound.