Five Questions With: Patrice Milos

PATRICE MILOS is chief executive officer of Medley Genomics, a startup company in Providence. / COURTESY JEFF STEVENS
PATRICE MILOS is chief executive officer of Medley Genomics, a startup company in Providence. / COURTESY JEFF STEVENS

Patrice Milos is CEO of Medley Genomics, which recently received $250,000 in seed funding from Slater Technology Fund. Medley Genomics, a life-sciences startup out of Brown University, is a personalized medicine company. Milos, who holds a doctorate in biology, previously served in C-suite positions at Claritas Genomics, Pfizer and Helicos BioSciences.

Milos talked with Providence Business News about Medley Genomics and its goals and objectives. Medley Genomics was one of 12 companies selected from 42 company entries to participate in the MassChallenge Bridge to Rhode Island Bootcamp. After winning the Bootcamp Pitch Competition, it is now fast-tracked to participate in the upcoming MassChallenge Pitch Competition.

PBN: What attracted you to Medley Genomics; explain the company’s primary focus in lay terms?

MILOS: Simple: The people, the science and the location. I have spent my career working with amazing people focused on using cutting-edge genomic sciences and technologies to improve health care for patients. Medley Genomics seemed a natural extension for me. The computational experts at Brown University had developed a world-class software/data analytics suite, which we licensed to form the company with an initial focus in cancer, which today remains a deadly disease. This software suite offers an important new way to deliver deeper, more impactful knowledge about a patient’s tumor from existing “big data.” Thus, our primary focus is to use our novel approaches to describe the different cells, each with unique molecular information, found in the patient’s tumor. We believe that understanding this molecular heterogeneity, or medley, offers the opportunity to improve treatment outcomes. And finally, I have lived in the Edgewood neighborhood of Cranston for more than 20 years and have never worked in Rhode Island. I am passionate about our Rhode Island life-sciences community growing and prospering; I just couldn’t travel to Cambridge anymore!

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PBN: Is Medley Genomics focusing only on specific kinds of cancers? If so, what are they?

MILOS: Actually, no. Our approach can be applied across a wide range of cancer types. Even more important, we can apply our methods to study other diseases that are also heterogeneous due to the complexity of their underlying biology, including inflammation, transplant rejection and perhaps even neurological disorders.

PBN: Who are your competitors, either in New England or nationally, and how do the companies differ?

MILOS: I will be bold; Medley Genomics is the first company solely dedicated to understanding genomic heterogeneity in complex diseases. While other companies such as Illumina and Fluidigm focus on certain elements of tumor heterogeneity, including sequencing or single-cell methods, we are using the power of our data analytics to add new insight into the basis for the tumor genomic heterogeneity and translating this into more precise care for patients.

PBN: Medley Genomics recently received $250,000 in seed funding from Slater Technology Fund. What are your other sources of revenue and is Medley Genomics talking with other investors?

MILOS: As a startup company, Medley Genomics will depend on early-stage investors who see the future revenue potential for our approaches. We are currently speaking with angel and venture investors about investing in our company and we have received small funding from an angel investor. We also want to utilize non-dilutive funding and have applied to the R.I. Commerce Corp. Innovation Voucher program and will be submitting applications for grants from the National Institutes of Health during the coming months.

PBN: What are your specific goals during the next 12-18 months, and what are the primary challenges to accomplishing those goals?

MILOS: The next 12-18 months will be focused on demonstrating the value Medley Genomics’ analytical tools can bring to health care in partnership with key collaborators, from both industry and academia. We have a strong road map to demonstrate the clinical value of our software, to develop a robust commercial software product and, finally, to launch a commercial path for the company’s future software services and product sales. As we make progress toward these milestones and secure additional funding, we plan to expand our staff.

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