hello everyone it’s always strange to
have someone introduce you because when
you’re when you’re in your lane and
you’re you’re focused and you’re hyper
focused like I get on what you’re doing
you forget about all of the things
you’ve done you forget the path that
you’ve been on you’re just focused on
what’s ahead of you so today I want to
give you a story about my path from West
Texas to saving the world and it’s been
a wonderful journey and it all started
with my trusty steed poncho I was Lefty
we were going to be the greatest cowgirl
miniature Welsh Pony team that that ever
existed he was my best friend I was a
little bit of a strange child I was a
tomboy and I did not travel the same
path that the other girls did and this
is something that I don’t know why but
that’s just how I was I was wired we
were we were we were really great
friends and I had an amazing family
around me that saw something in me I
still am not quite sure what it is they
saw but they saw something in me that
was different and something that they
wanted to encourage and so they put this
little bubble around me and they they
encouraged me to go and learn and and do
and I was the first person in my family
to go to college they thought that was
wonderful and great yeah she’s going to
go to college my my family was very
proud of me
and they got a little confused when I
went to graduate school and then they
got really confused when I went to get
my PhD and kept asking me what what
grade I was in look at the 30 second
grade I did when I was gonna get a job
then they were really confused when I
went to Mayo Clinic for my my junior
fellowship and even more so when I went
to Duke for my senior fellowship and
then at the grand age of 31 I got my
first real job I co-founded my first
company but it all started here in West
Texas where I chased horny toads and
captured as many as I could
and went on many adventures with poncho
the inspiration for where I am in large
part came from my grandmother this is my
grandmother her name was winema and
winema is Native American for a woman
chief so I was raised by a woman chief
my mother’s name is also winema so I had
a very strong female line bringing me
through this through this path I was on
and what inspired me about her was she
was very ill and I went to a lot of
doctors appointments with her I would go
and spend time with her at the hospital
and any time I was with her with her
doctors and medical team she would
always tell them how this was her
granddaughter and her granddaughter was
gonna be a doctor when she grew up and
that was that was the seed that my
grandmother planted in me what happened
with my grandmother was she was very
sick and no one could figure out why and
many of the health care providers and
and some of our family as well had
written her off as a hypochondriac she
suffered with tremendous pain and it
wasn’t that the doctors didn’t want to
help her they just didn’t have the right
tools to be able to help her they didn’t
understand what was really going on so
that really that really left a mark on
me and you know a long journey to get
where I am today I’m the CEO for a pareo
mix and we are changing everything about
how infections are identified because
the current system is completely broken
and my grandmother was was a casualty of
the fact that the system is completely
broken
everyone here has gone to the doctor and
been told something along the lines of I
think you have an infection here’s some
antibiotics if you don’t feel better in
a few days give me a call that’s the
standard of care even today and we need
to do better than that we can do better
than that and that’s what my company is
doing we are the first company in the
world to be able to offer patients a way
to identify every known bacterial virus
parasite and fungus from any clinical
sample blood tissue urine fecal in one
test so instead of making edge
okay two guesses as to what someone may
or may not have let’s find out what they
actually have and let’s give them a
targeted treatment so they can get
better and it’s working we have been on
the market for just over a year and the
way our service works is you collect a
sample again blood tissue urine stool
any type of a clinical sample you send
us that sample we do sequencing on that
sample and what that is it takes the
genetic information from the sample and
it creates a blueprint of everything in
the sample and from that we have
software that is able to make sense of
this very large very complex data file
and match it up to everything that’s
known it’s over 37,000 possibilities so
this is this is changing everything and
then we generate a report that goes back
to the patient’s doctor so the doctor
can for the first time ever see exactly
what’s going on in the patient and be
able to create a treatment plan that is
going to help the patient finally get
better
so just to illustrate how important and
how life-changing this technology is
these are real case studies this is a
young woman who suffers from a condition
called interstitial cystitis
this is a condition that is considered
autoimmune there’s no known cause
there’s no known cure we she’s for 15
years she suffered with this condition
she’s not an older person she’s a young
woman she can’t go on vacation she can’t
hold down a full-time job she can’t
sleep through the night
this is debilitating its presence as a
urinary tract infection so imagine for
those of you who suffered with a urinary
tract infection the pain the urgency the
very unpleasantness of suffering was
something like that for 15 years we
tested her and a week later we had
answers she had a virus and two bacteria
that should not be there when she was
treated for those those things she got
better she now holds her first full-time
job at the age of 35 this is going to
change people’s lives one of these
people is actually my mother she suffer
from the same condition and she for the
first time in
and you know many many years can sleep
through the night another interesting
case that we have been working on is an
autism like illness these are children
that are like anyone else’s children
their normal healthy children they get
strep throat within a matter of just
overnight these children develop autism
like disorders they become OCD they
develop severe issues with neurological
symptoms they develop eating disorders
they become very very difficult children
to care for overnight and it’s called
pediatric autoimmune neurological
syndrome the condition is is not well
understood they believe that it’s an
autoimmune reaction there’s a lot of
autoimmune or yeah I don’t mean things
that I’m sure most of you are familiar
with things like fibromyalgia things
like chronic fatigue things like Crohn’s
disease our working hypothesis is that
there’s no such thing as an autoimmune
condition they just don’t know what’s
there they just can’t identify what’s
there that’s causing the immune response
and so with this child this particular
case I’m five years old for three years
this child has been suffering been on
almost constant antibiotics for the for
most of his life and that’s not a good
way to raise a child that’s not a good
way for a human being to navigate
through life being on antibiotics
constantly it’s very damaging many
doctors many treatments parents are so
frustrated the parents you know we we
talk to them on the phone they’re in
tears they want to help their child but
nobody can figure out what’s going on so
we run a test we run a blood test and we
did a swab of the oral pharyngeal space
and this child had a fungus and a
bacteria that should not be there and
when he was treated his symptoms
completely resolved
what if autism is a fungal infection
that
one of the questions we’re trying to
answer right now so we are working with
dozens of patients that have this
condition and we are working to try to
identify what is really going on in
these patients and following them and
tracking them through treatment and
hopefully resolution of symptoms so we
can come up with some real answers and
make some real difference in people’s
lives and again this goes round full
circle this goes back to with the days
where I would sit with my grandmother in
the doctor’s office and listen to the
doctors you know struggle with how to
help her if my technology if if they
technology that a pareo mix is using
right now was around when my grandmother
was was so sick she she may still be
alive today and so that’s the power of
what we’re doing
we are changing the world through
information my my staff we have we have
a couple of missions and mantras we live
by so our mission is to change
everything about how infections are
identified because it’s not working what
we’re doing is not working everyone in
here has somebody either themselves or
their family is suffering with an issue
and the doctors don’t know why the other
mantra is the truth will set you free
when you know what’s really going on you
can address it and for some of our
patients some of these patients are
having being told they have psychiatric
issues I have one patient who is
institutionalized for a psychiatric
condition and really they just had an
infection that needed to be treated
these patients go through the system and
the system doesn’t know what to do with
them so they you know throw their hands
up and say I’m sorry I can’t help you or
there’s nothing wrong with you imagine
being told by your doctor that there’s
nothing wrong with you but you know
there’s something wrong with you and as
a patient if you get defiant about being
told there’s nothing wrong with you
then you’re labeled as as a psych case
and you are viewer referred to a
psychiatric institution
that is completely demoralizing to these
patients and with through our testing
even if we can’t do anything to treat
the issue they have just knowing I am
sick that’s enough for a lot of these
patients and that would have been enough
for my grandmother knowing okay you’re
sick there’s nothing we can do to help
you we can help you manage but there’s
nothing we can do to cure you would have
been tremendous that would have made
such a tremendous improvement in her
quality of life and it would have
changed the relationship with her family
so so that’s what a pareo mix is doing
it’s been a long road from West Texas
through to a pareo mix and and leading a
company forward with with with literally
life-changing technology but it all
started here and it’s great to be back
and I appreciate the opportunity to
speak to everyone thank you
have someone introduce you because when
you’re when you’re in your lane and
you’re you’re focused and you’re hyper
focused like I get on what you’re doing
you forget about all of the things
you’ve done you forget the path that
you’ve been on you’re just focused on
what’s ahead of you so today I want to
give you a story about my path from West
Texas to saving the world and it’s been
a wonderful journey and it all started
with my trusty steed poncho I was Lefty
we were going to be the greatest cowgirl
miniature Welsh Pony team that that ever
existed he was my best friend I was a
little bit of a strange child I was a
tomboy and I did not travel the same
path that the other girls did and this
is something that I don’t know why but
that’s just how I was I was wired we
were we were we were really great
friends and I had an amazing family
around me that saw something in me I
still am not quite sure what it is they
saw but they saw something in me that
was different and something that they
wanted to encourage and so they put this
little bubble around me and they they
encouraged me to go and learn and and do
and I was the first person in my family
to go to college they thought that was
wonderful and great yeah she’s going to
go to college my my family was very
proud of me
and they got a little confused when I
went to graduate school and then they
got really confused when I went to get
my PhD and kept asking me what what
grade I was in look at the 30 second
grade I did when I was gonna get a job
then they were really confused when I
went to Mayo Clinic for my my junior
fellowship and even more so when I went
to Duke for my senior fellowship and
then at the grand age of 31 I got my
first real job I co-founded my first
company but it all started here in West
Texas where I chased horny toads and
captured as many as I could
and went on many adventures with poncho
the inspiration for where I am in large
part came from my grandmother this is my
grandmother her name was winema and
winema is Native American for a woman
chief so I was raised by a woman chief
my mother’s name is also winema so I had
a very strong female line bringing me
through this through this path I was on
and what inspired me about her was she
was very ill and I went to a lot of
doctors appointments with her I would go
and spend time with her at the hospital
and any time I was with her with her
doctors and medical team she would
always tell them how this was her
granddaughter and her granddaughter was
gonna be a doctor when she grew up and
that was that was the seed that my
grandmother planted in me what happened
with my grandmother was she was very
sick and no one could figure out why and
many of the health care providers and
and some of our family as well had
written her off as a hypochondriac she
suffered with tremendous pain and it
wasn’t that the doctors didn’t want to
help her they just didn’t have the right
tools to be able to help her they didn’t
understand what was really going on so
that really that really left a mark on
me and you know a long journey to get
where I am today I’m the CEO for a pareo
mix and we are changing everything about
how infections are identified because
the current system is completely broken
and my grandmother was was a casualty of
the fact that the system is completely
broken
everyone here has gone to the doctor and
been told something along the lines of I
think you have an infection here’s some
antibiotics if you don’t feel better in
a few days give me a call that’s the
standard of care even today and we need
to do better than that we can do better
than that and that’s what my company is
doing we are the first company in the
world to be able to offer patients a way
to identify every known bacterial virus
parasite and fungus from any clinical
sample blood tissue urine fecal in one
test so instead of making edge
okay two guesses as to what someone may
or may not have let’s find out what they
actually have and let’s give them a
targeted treatment so they can get
better and it’s working we have been on
the market for just over a year and the
way our service works is you collect a
sample again blood tissue urine stool
any type of a clinical sample you send
us that sample we do sequencing on that
sample and what that is it takes the
genetic information from the sample and
it creates a blueprint of everything in
the sample and from that we have
software that is able to make sense of
this very large very complex data file
and match it up to everything that’s
known it’s over 37,000 possibilities so
this is this is changing everything and
then we generate a report that goes back
to the patient’s doctor so the doctor
can for the first time ever see exactly
what’s going on in the patient and be
able to create a treatment plan that is
going to help the patient finally get
better
so just to illustrate how important and
how life-changing this technology is
these are real case studies this is a
young woman who suffers from a condition
called interstitial cystitis
this is a condition that is considered
autoimmune there’s no known cause
there’s no known cure we she’s for 15
years she suffered with this condition
she’s not an older person she’s a young
woman she can’t go on vacation she can’t
hold down a full-time job she can’t
sleep through the night
this is debilitating its presence as a
urinary tract infection so imagine for
those of you who suffered with a urinary
tract infection the pain the urgency the
very unpleasantness of suffering was
something like that for 15 years we
tested her and a week later we had
answers she had a virus and two bacteria
that should not be there when she was
treated for those those things she got
better she now holds her first full-time
job at the age of 35 this is going to
change people’s lives one of these
people is actually my mother she suffer
from the same condition and she for the
first time in
and you know many many years can sleep
through the night another interesting
case that we have been working on is an
autism like illness these are children
that are like anyone else’s children
their normal healthy children they get
strep throat within a matter of just
overnight these children develop autism
like disorders they become OCD they
develop severe issues with neurological
symptoms they develop eating disorders
they become very very difficult children
to care for overnight and it’s called
pediatric autoimmune neurological
syndrome the condition is is not well
understood they believe that it’s an
autoimmune reaction there’s a lot of
autoimmune or yeah I don’t mean things
that I’m sure most of you are familiar
with things like fibromyalgia things
like chronic fatigue things like Crohn’s
disease our working hypothesis is that
there’s no such thing as an autoimmune
condition they just don’t know what’s
there they just can’t identify what’s
there that’s causing the immune response
and so with this child this particular
case I’m five years old for three years
this child has been suffering been on
almost constant antibiotics for the for
most of his life and that’s not a good
way to raise a child that’s not a good
way for a human being to navigate
through life being on antibiotics
constantly it’s very damaging many
doctors many treatments parents are so
frustrated the parents you know we we
talk to them on the phone they’re in
tears they want to help their child but
nobody can figure out what’s going on so
we run a test we run a blood test and we
did a swab of the oral pharyngeal space
and this child had a fungus and a
bacteria that should not be there and
when he was treated his symptoms
completely resolved
what if autism is a fungal infection
that
one of the questions we’re trying to
answer right now so we are working with
dozens of patients that have this
condition and we are working to try to
identify what is really going on in
these patients and following them and
tracking them through treatment and
hopefully resolution of symptoms so we
can come up with some real answers and
make some real difference in people’s
lives and again this goes round full
circle this goes back to with the days
where I would sit with my grandmother in
the doctor’s office and listen to the
doctors you know struggle with how to
help her if my technology if if they
technology that a pareo mix is using
right now was around when my grandmother
was was so sick she she may still be
alive today and so that’s the power of
what we’re doing
we are changing the world through
information my my staff we have we have
a couple of missions and mantras we live
by so our mission is to change
everything about how infections are
identified because it’s not working what
we’re doing is not working everyone in
here has somebody either themselves or
their family is suffering with an issue
and the doctors don’t know why the other
mantra is the truth will set you free
when you know what’s really going on you
can address it and for some of our
patients some of these patients are
having being told they have psychiatric
issues I have one patient who is
institutionalized for a psychiatric
condition and really they just had an
infection that needed to be treated
these patients go through the system and
the system doesn’t know what to do with
them so they you know throw their hands
up and say I’m sorry I can’t help you or
there’s nothing wrong with you imagine
being told by your doctor that there’s
nothing wrong with you but you know
there’s something wrong with you and as
a patient if you get defiant about being
told there’s nothing wrong with you
then you’re labeled as as a psych case
and you are viewer referred to a
psychiatric institution
that is completely demoralizing to these
patients and with through our testing
even if we can’t do anything to treat
the issue they have just knowing I am
sick that’s enough for a lot of these
patients and that would have been enough
for my grandmother knowing okay you’re
sick there’s nothing we can do to help
you we can help you manage but there’s
nothing we can do to cure you would have
been tremendous that would have made
such a tremendous improvement in her
quality of life and it would have
changed the relationship with her family
so so that’s what a pareo mix is doing
it’s been a long road from West Texas
through to a pareo mix and and leading a
company forward with with with literally
life-changing technology but it all
started here and it’s great to be back
and I appreciate the opportunity to
speak to everyone thank you
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