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Name: Casey Means, MD
Role: Co-founder, Chief Medical Officer
Joined: September 2019
Past Experience:
Name: Josh Clemente
Role: Founder, President
Joined: May 2019
Past Experience:
Nearly all continuous glucose monitoring is performed as a therapeutic measure after a diagnosis of disease. Once an individual has been flagged as having a metabolic condition like diabetes, they are sometimes provided with a continuous monitor in order to accurately measure and—with the help of lifestyle and medication—moderate their glucose levels. The goal of this monitoring and intervention is ultimately to match the glucose patterns of a healthy person.
Two flaws exist in this approach: 1) there exists no robust "normal datum" to compare the diseased state against. By focusing research with continuous glucose monitors on those with existing metabolic dysfunction, we have yet to understand with any precision what normal glycemic patterns look like, not to mention what optimal patterns may be. 2) The focus solely on glucose patterns as the therapeutic target misses the forest for the trees. How lifestyle factors lead to insulin resistance and glucose dysregulation are the foundational questions that must be answered to prevent continued escalation of the epidemic, but are being overshadowed by the focus on disease management.
In order to achieve prevention of metabolic dysfunction and effective correction of existing disorder, it is necessary to develop a high-resolution understanding of free-living glucose patterns in the general population and the roles of other molecular targets in developing dysfunction.
Our positioning at the intersection of scalable software technology, data-science, education/thought leadership, and brand recognition, makes Levels uniquely capable of influencing the direction of metabolic research and incorporation of the findings back into our consumer product experience.
This is the basis for our Clinical Research strategy which we are executing on via two primary means:
In 2020 we launched our research program and successfully scouted and recruited a team of world renowned scientists and medical experts to lead sponsored research projects spanning across mechanistic observations to behavioral studies and effectiveness analysis of the Levels product itself. Each of these efforts offers a unique value proposition and is intended as the first step, with findings leading to the next permutation. Of the 8 IRB controlled research programs started since our 2020 seed round, 6 have received IRB approval or have been completed and are in research review/analysis.
<aside> 🗒️ Go deeper:
In addition to these academic projects, we took steps toward demonstrating what a future scalable, fully distributed research architecture powered by the Levels members and dataset could look like with our first community challenge, the Levels Coke Challenge. Volunteers were invited to drink a can of coke on two different days, remaining sedentary after one, and doing physical activity after the other. We compared postprandial glucose responses to see what impact, if any, physical activity has on glucose absorption.
The results were packaged into a successful blog post about the power of movement after meals. This sort of turnkey, large N, remote research has been demonstrated by Apple; our molecular monitoring platform suggests far greater potential for health discoveries.
What a can of Coke-with and without a walk after-does to your blood sugar - Levels
https://www.loom.com/share/8cb6cfe8276d46b3af7b045a1395b2c2?sharedAppSource=personal_library
https://open.spotify.com/episode/11lWwR41HujYW5tN0rrzFh?si=7a17f77c2d4d4758