It’s a well documented fact Austin tech loves its dogs. We even have a company here dedicated to meetups for dogs and their owners. Yesterday,
launched to take our love to a new level with dog DNA tests you can administer at home.
The Austin company, which raised $1.6 million in seed funding from Slow Ventures and the Aspiration Growth Fund, was founded by Dr. Spencer Wells of National Geographic and the Genographic Project, and Matt Salzberg, CEO of Blue Apron, along with two brothers, Adam and Ryan Boyko.
Adam Boyko (pictured right) is an assistant professor of biomedical sciences at Cornell University, where he’s done extensive research on methods for detecting and predicting canine health issues.
Adam Boyko said the point of demystifying dogs’ health is to unlock the issues they share with humans.
“Dogs were the first domesticated animal species and have lived and worked alongside humans for over 15,000 years,” Adam said in a statement. “Our canine friends are diagnosed with many of the same diseases as people and share our home and environment, making them a particularly valuable model species for understanding cancer, immune disorders, behavior and aging.”
Ryan Boyko (pictured left) did his own research at Cornell, leading a field effort to genetically sample village dogs around the world for the Cornell Village Dog Diversity Project. He received his master’s degree from Yale University in Philosophy and the epidemiology of microbial disease.
“This holds great promise for taking science outside the lab to make discoveries that impact animal, and likely human, health,” he said.
