Company provides innovative solutions to finding patients at risk for genetic and rare conditions

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, September 26, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) today announced that Virginia Venture Partners (VVP), its equity investment program, has invested in ThinkGenetic, Inc. Waynesboro, Va.-based ThinkGenetic offers solutions which leverage the potential of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to assist healthcare providers in solving their patients' medical mysteries.

There are over 10,000 rare diseases, making it challenging for individual healthcare providers to consider each possible one when seeking answers for their patients' medical issues. This translates into wasted dollars, years, and testing trying to find the right diagnosis. It also means a delay in beginning disease-specific therapies that could significantly impact a patient's life. One of ThinkGenetic’s solutions to this problem is FindEHRTM: proprietary, validated algorithms combined with electronic health records (EHR) to flag at-risk patients for specific underlying genetic conditions. Once the algorithms run the data, the flagged records are then screened by a genetic counselor to ensure the patient meets the criteria for further evaluation. In a subset of records, ThinkGenetic can flag the medical record to provide healthcare providers real-time education about their patients’ symptoms, genetic risk level, referrals, free sponsored testing, clinical trials, and FDA-approved therapies.

“ThinkGenetic was co-founded by a patient advocate, genetic counselor, and a developer, and we know firsthand that people can wait a long time to receive a genetic diagnosis and that technology has the power to help,” said Dave Jacob Co-founder and CEO, ThinkGenetic. “Advances in artificial intelligence, along with the availability of genetic counselors to train it, has made it possible to create the FindEHRTM solutions to help reduce the time to diagnose genetic diseases. We thank VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners for their support on this journey to expand our reach.”

Tom Weithman, VIPC Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director of Virginia Venture Partners, added, “Awareness around health problems as a result of an underlying genetic condition is at an all-time high thanks to scientific advances in genetics and the resulting media coverage. Access to the ThinkGenetic solutions will help both patients and providers develop a better differential diagnoses list, increase the understanding of the testing and treatment, and improve overall diagnosis management. ThinkGenetic has assembled a highly qualified team to execute on their mission of finding individuals in need of a diagnosis, and VIPC looks forward to being part of their company story and the positive impact they may have on the lives of patients.”

VIPC’s investment in ThinkGenetic draws upon funds made available through the U.S. Treasury Department State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Program.

About ThinkGenetic
ThinkGenetic is an award-winning digital health company specializing in finding individuals at risk of rare conditions. The company detects patients for evaluation, treatment, and clinical trials using validated algorithms, AI technology, and the team's deep experience in genetic and rare diseases. The company works with biopharma, research institutions, healthcare systems, and patient advocacy organizations. ThinkGenetic is a MIT Solve / Horizon Prize winner, Opportunity Machine / Accelerate South and PULSE@MassChallenge accelerator alumni. For more information, visit www.thinkgenetic.com.

About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
VIPC: Connecting innovators with opportunities. As the nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia's innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy.

Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | VVP Fund of Funds (SSBCI) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) | Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Petersburg Founders Fund (PFF) | Smart Communities | The Virginia Smart Community Testbed | The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center | Virginia Advanced Air Mobility Alliance (VAAMA) | The Public Safety Innovation Center | Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.

About Virginia Venture Partners
Virginia Venture Partners is the equity investment program of VIPC that makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean energy, and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating a significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Since its inception in 2005, Virginia Venture Partners has deployed $41.8 million in capital across more than 275 portfolio companies, including 17 companies in designated Opportunity Zones. Virginia Venture Partners’ investment decisions are guided by the Virginia Venture Partners Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel has drawn from the expertise of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel, and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit the VVP pages from www.VirginiaIPC.org.

Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
angela.costello@VirginiaIPC.org
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