This article is part of a series looking at all the competitors of UT Dallas’ 2020 Big Idea Pitch Competition.
Growing up on the edge of Appalachia, Doloromics co-founder and CEO Candler Paige saw firsthand the ravages of the opioid epidemic. Now she and her team is using technology to find new ways to treat pain.
Launched in August, Doloromics uses a proprietary algorithm called the Interactome that uses human genetic sequencing data to identify potential drug targets for chronic pain. And it hopes to eventually use the algorithm to match patients to novel drug therapies that they would most likely respond to.
“I have been a researcher in the pain field for over 10 years now, and while I've seen other disease areas advanced dramatically in treatment options, the new treatment options for pain have been few and far between,” Paige told NTX Inno via email. “I want to see better pain drugs make it to patients soon.”
Being a new company, Doloromics have face the challenges of creating a company amid a global crisis, which has cause them to build their team remotely. However, despite an initial pause to consider the timing of the launch, the Doloromics team have been hard at work. And since then, the company’s algorithm has been used to justify a clinical drug trial for a drug created by Algernon Pharmaceuticals that could potentially be used to treat COVID patients.
As it looks ahead, the company is hoping to grow its team and services, with the plan of becoming a well-known name In in the biopharmaceutical industry.
What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced so far? How did you overcome it?
Paige: One of our biggest challenges was finding a chief scientific officer that shared the same vision as the rest of the co-founders when it came to building a company. We interviewed a few people outside of UT Dallas, but decided to ask Jackson Brougher, a PhD student in the neuroscience department, to come on board. He had spent time listening to our initial plans, has expertise outside of pain, and we knew he was a good fit after a few extensive Zoom calls.
How has COVID-19 affected your business and industry?
We were in full swing of getting Doloromics up and running when COVID hit, and took a break at the start of the pandemic to re-group and gauge the environment - we weren't sure that starting a company in the middle of a global pandemic was going to work. In the end, we've been really lucky. All of our work can be done remotely, and companies and investors are really open to virtual meetings where that wouldn't have been an option in the past.
Personally, what impact do you hope to have through the work that you do? I grew up on the edge of Appalachia, where the opioid epidemic is an issue that has impacted many people I know. I want to be able to contribute to solving that problem, and help people in pain get their normal lives back.
This interview has been edited for clarity and grammar.
