Brainstorm Tech 2024: Biohacking Our Way to Better Health
Sky Christopherson, Olympic Athlete and Founder, GOLD.AI Rich Yang, Chief Executive Officer, Biolinq
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00We're going to be needing to be a lot louder
00:02because we have a real special live event today.
00:06Let me introduce myself really quick.
00:07Rich Yang, I've been in med tech for 25 years,
00:1010 years as an investor as well.
00:12We've got Sky.
00:13He's somebody I've known for a very long time.
00:16Oddly enough, we did a keynote at the Consumer
00:20Electronics Show over 15 years ago on this very topic,
00:23but we were talking about the promise of what can be done.
00:26We're actually going to show you live today something
00:28that most people never get to see.
00:30So Sky is an Olympic athlete.
00:32We'll have you introduce yourself for a quick second.
00:34Yeah, hey, guys, Sky Christofferson.
00:36I was on the US Olympic cycling team
00:38and broke a world record in track cycling.
00:41And now we're here looking for a different type of record
00:45today here on the stage.
00:47So Sky set the record.
00:49Nice.
00:50Nice.
00:52Sky is a little bit outdated.
00:54So it's been 12 years since his world record.
00:58So let me introduce Jared as well.
01:00Jared is one of our two co-founders at BioLink.
01:03So Jared will be helping set up what we're doing today,
01:06showing a live demonstration of continuous lactate sensing.
01:11If you have had a hard workout in the past
01:15and you're really sore, that's due to the lactic acid
01:18buildup in your muscles.
01:19Well, so watching Sky build up lactic acid
01:22isn't very interesting.
01:24If you follow Peter Attia's Zone 2 training,
01:28lactate threshold training is going
01:30to be the new standard above and beyond what has been used
01:33for peak performance, like VO2 max, heart rate.
01:37It's just that it's not easy to get lactate glucose or lactate
01:41samples because it requires finger pricking and blood
01:44measurements.
01:45So instead of having Sky do a Zone 2 threshold training
01:49on lactate threshold today, we're
01:51going to see if he could break his old personal peak
01:54lactate threshold.
01:55We're going to drive him to maximum fatigue
01:58where he can't even stand.
02:00And he is not a normal human being.
02:02So we're going to see if he can break his old records.
02:04And by the way, this is unscripted.
02:06And I bet that he can't do it.
02:10It's been 12 years since your world record, Sky.
02:12So I bet you can't do it.
02:14So if you beat the records, I will do 10 push-ups on stage.
02:22All right?
02:22OK.
02:23Make that 20.
02:25OK.
02:26All right.
02:28So let me give you a little bit of background.
02:30What you're seeing today, Sky is wearing several sensors
02:33on his forearm.
02:34These are investigational prototype devices.
02:36We are not yet approved by the FDA.
02:39We intend to submit our first product to the FDA
02:41by the end of this year.
02:43So he's wearing a glucose sensor.
02:44He's wearing lactate sensors.
02:46And you're going to watch real-time streaming
02:48data in a few different points along our talk this morning.
02:51So Sky, are you ready?
02:55You seem a little bit slow this morning.
02:56So it's my father's 80th birthday this week.
03:01And I think he might be able to roll a little bit faster
03:03than you.
03:04So if you're ready, I would welcome your help.
03:06Let's pump him up.
03:07He's going to go three cycles, 30-second cycles,
03:1230 seconds on, 30 seconds off, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.
03:15And then he's going to go for maximum fatigue.
03:18So maybe we do a three-second countdown.
03:20And we say, go, Sky, as loud as possible.
03:22Sky, you ready?
03:24OK, three, two, one, go!
03:28Go!
03:30Go!
03:31All right.
03:33So what Jared is doing, what Jared is doing right now
03:39is he's controlling the resistance on this bike.
03:43And he's going to be cranking up the resistance
03:45where Sky can barely pedal.
03:47So he's going through his first 30 seconds,
03:49his heart is racing.
03:52But what you see on the screen back here
03:54is what elite athletes do to get VO2 max.
03:57It's very hard to do.
03:59They have to go into labs.
04:00They have to get fitted with electrodes.
04:01They have to wear these masks.
04:03It's uncomfortable.
04:05And this is how they do their peak performance training.
04:08Jared is also taking a blood fingerstick measurement
04:11to get his lactate baseline measurements.
04:14And so it's very hard to do.
04:16And the data that you generate for these elite athletes
04:19look like this.
04:21What in the world do you do with this kind of information
04:25with heart rate VO2 max for people
04:27like us that want to live healthier, longer, happier
04:31lives?
04:33So thankfully, we have AI now that can digest all of this
04:36and hopefully make it easier for us to digest.
04:39But Sky set the world record for the indoor village
04:43room track cycling.
04:45So he's in his second sprint right now.
04:48He's starting to feel his thighs burn.
04:52And again, maybe I'll give you a little bit of background
04:56in terms of what the peak lactate thresholds are
04:59for elite athletes.
05:02And because it's Olympic season, we
05:07looked up what the elite athletes usually peak out
05:10at with lactate threshold.
05:12So let's take an Olympic swimmer.
05:17A gold medal Olympic swimmer will typically
05:20have lactate levels that are peak lactate levels that
05:24are around 13 to 15 millimolar.
05:27So we have that on the screen for you to see in the back.
05:30So in the next 30 seconds, Sky has
05:32to beat that for my 20 push-ups on stage, 13 to 15.
05:37So we're going to do his last 10 seconds
05:43are going to be the hardest.
05:44Let's do a countdown.
05:4510, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
05:55You did it.
05:56All right.
05:59Let me explain how hard this is to do.
06:06An elite athlete, gold medal athletes,
06:09they require 30 minutes of this cycling
06:12to get to peak lactate.
06:13We just had him do it in 2 and 1 half minutes.
06:16So this is why I'm saying, hey, Sky,
06:19I'm not going to be doing push-ups.
06:23I don't think you're going to break.
06:24It's been 12 years, Sky.
06:25How are you feeling?
06:29All right.
06:30So what Jared is going to do now,
06:31he's going to load the data.
06:33And we're going to see a preview on this screen.
06:36There you go.
06:37You see the spike?
06:38We're actually not going to show you the actual number
06:41until the end of our session.
06:43And here's why.
06:44His lactate levels are still climbing right now
06:47as he stopped.
06:48So Jared is going to take another blood measurement.
06:50And then we're going to show this again at the end
06:52and see if he broke what would make
06:55me do 20 push-ups on stage.
06:56All right.
06:57So how does this work?
06:58So the skin.
07:00Let me talk about this for a second.
07:02For those of us that have been in biosensing,
07:05we have always known in industry that the skin is the ideal
07:08location to sense anything.
07:11And specifically, the papillary dermis,
07:13which is right on top of the capillary bed.
07:17But for the last 50 years, industry
07:20could not figure out how to miniaturize biosensors using
07:24electrochemistry to measure biomarkers
07:27in this compartment of the skin.
07:30It was impossible to shrink biosensors that small
07:33without it breaking.
07:35So BioLink is the first company to leverage
07:39semiconductor manufacturing, silicon microneedles.
07:44And silicon microneedles that can penetrate your skin
07:46without you feeling it, no bleeding, no scarring.
07:49We never hit nerve endings, so you don't feel it.
07:52And we sit right on top of the capillary bed.
07:54And we can measure things like glucose continuously.
07:58How many of you have actually worn a biosensor
08:00like a continuous glucose sensor before?
08:03OK, now, it's been around for 25 years.
08:07And now it's barely beginning to hit mainstream.
08:11And so we're the first ones to miniaturize it
08:13to be able to access this compartment of the skin.
08:16Second, the skin is highly metabolically active.
08:19So if we want to push the boundaries of measuring
08:22multiple biomarkers, the skin is the ideal place to do it.
08:27We're going to show it for the first time.
08:30We might need to lower your mic.
08:31And like I said, Sky, you're out of shape.
08:33It's been 12 years.
08:34So what you're seeing here is the world's first
08:39semiconductor biosensor.
08:42And it's the smallest.
08:44And I'm going to show you really quick.
08:45We brought one here with us.
08:46So this is an 8-inch silicon wafer.
08:49This is the genius invention that our two co-founders
08:52invented over a decade ago.
08:53So this is the world's smallest electrochemical biosensor.
09:00This has thousands of biosensors on this one 8-inch wafer.
09:04And the thousands of biosensors on this 1-inch wafer
09:08allows us to scale orthogonally, the likes of which
09:10have never been done before.
09:12Now, each one of these chips are very small.
09:14They're 2 millimeters by 2 millimeters.
09:17You OK, Sky?
09:18Oh, my god.
09:20Yeah.
09:21And on each one of those chips, we
09:23have seven tiny little microsensors.
09:26And each one of these microsensors
09:28are 200 times smaller than a human hair filament.
09:32If you were to touch something that small, it would break.
09:35How many of you knew that something at this scale,
09:38using silicon, is stronger and more robust than titanium
09:43and steel at this scale?
09:45This is how we're able to access the papillary dermis just
09:49underneath the skin to allow us to sense biomarkers right
09:53on top of the papillary dermis.
09:54So with that said, we have to run clinical trials
09:57to look at accuracy.
09:59In this slide here in the far corner,
10:01you can see we draw blood every 15 to 20 minutes in subjects
10:05comparing venous blood samples to the biosensor performance.
10:08So Sky's going to cool down for a few moments.
10:11We have added a few things on our biosensors.
10:13So glucose, as an example, is only one biomarker.
10:17We decided to add context in our wearable.
10:20So we have sleep, activity, temperature, glucose combined,
10:26all in one wearable.
10:27That allows us to provide an environment where
10:33without using a phone, you get real-time biofeedback
10:37on the wearable itself.
10:38So we put a user interface using LED lights on the biowearable.
10:44This allows us to do something that hasn't been done before,
10:46which is cognitive restructuring in real time.
10:49So there are three things required
10:51for cognitive restructuring.
10:53Real-time feedback passively when teachable moments arise.
10:57So when my glucose levels rise after I
10:59drink a glass of orange juice, I can
11:01see my wearable on my forearm change from blue to yellow.
11:05Blue is my target range.
11:07Yellow means I'm high.
11:08I drink that orange juice, and my glucose levels skyrocket.
11:12I immediately have that cause and effect.
11:15Orange juice may not be so good.
11:17Maybe I don't finish my glass of orange juice.
11:19Maybe I take a brisk walk after my orange juice.
11:21But it allows me to have real-time cognitive
11:25restructuring for sustainable behavior change.
11:27Now, here is what makes our platform so powerful.
11:31We are in the first era of human history
11:33to be able to synthesize biology.
11:35So to be able to put these technologies
11:38on the tips of our micro-sensors on our wafers,
11:42we can now sense things that traditionally
11:43were impossible to do.
11:45We have leveraged single strands of DNA called DNA aptamers.
11:49And we are leveraging that technology
11:52with biomarker recognition elements
11:55to sense things that traditionally
11:57had no enzyme equivalents to measure,
11:59like hormones, antibodies, antigens.
12:01That brings a whole new world of biosensing
12:05that can help with the next pandemic.
12:07Instead of swabbing every day for COVID,
12:10imagine if these biosensors residing right on top
12:14of your capillary bed can actually sense antigens
12:15like COVID and turn red to let you know
12:18that you have been exposed.
12:20And it has taken 40 years for med tech and consumer tech
12:24to merge.
12:25In this picture is an insulin pump.
12:27To go from this black and white picture
12:30to the one on the right took 40 years
12:32to get this technology to mature.
12:34Thankfully, we have big tech coming in.
12:35And we can leverage AI.
12:37The AI train is moving into health care.
12:39But what's missing in health care
12:40is the proprietary high fidelity, high resolution
12:44information on the human condition
12:46above and beyond biomarkers like glucose and or lactate alone.
12:49So Jared, would you please show the results really quickly?
12:52Because I've got 30 seconds to do 20 push-ups.
12:55And so by the way, the applications
12:56that are possible with biosensing moving forward
12:59will be with companies like Gold AI & Sky.
13:01It is one of the co-founders at Gold AI & Sky.
13:04We'll be leveraging some of this information
13:06to help people live healthier, happier, stronger
13:09with biomarker input.
13:11So where did he land at his peak?
13:19I've got 30.
13:21He hit 17.
13:23So he broke records.
13:25And by the way, he hit 17 millimolar.
13:27That means he beat the Olympic medalist.
13:30I've got to do my 20 push-ups really quick.
13:321, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
13:3913, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
13:45That was very embarrassing.
13:47But congratulations, Sky.
13:49Actually, Sky, you want to give a quick comment?
13:51What is Lance Armstrong's peak?
13:54Sure.
13:55Yeah, so Lance Armstrong's peak was 18.
13:58So you just saw.
14:00Pretty good in two and a half minutes.
14:01Thank you, everybody.
14:03Oh, yeah.
14:04Sorry.