What is the “Phenome?”

How does understanding the phenome advance scientific discovery? Some examples:

The study of humans is identifying the earliest phases of dysregulation long prior to the symptoms of debilitating disease when treatments could be most effective.

It is determining how people vary in disease susceptibility and drug responses.

Similar insights are being found for model organisms where we can perturbate and control variables.

Study of domesticated animals is leading a revolution in veterinary medicine and in animal husbandry.

The phenomics of plants provides insights for improving crop yields, pathogen resistance, and other desirable traits.

These technologies provide further insights into broad areas, including the patterns of human migration and evolution, biogeography of all types of organisms, the effects of environmental exposures to toxins, both manmade and naturally occurring, and many others.

How can Phenome Ventures help?

We typically partner with academic or corporate clients to provide the relevant technical expertise for project design, proposal preparation, assay vendor choice and contracting, and data handling and interpretation. Although we occasionally find collaborators with funds in hand, we start most projects by partnering with a team for a proposal without any charges with the expectation that our costs for project participation and analysis will be part of the proposal budget.

The principal of Phenome Ventures is Jeffrey L. Boore, Ph.D., whose experiences include:

Chief Biotechnology Officer, Phenome Health, Inc. (January 2022-October 2024), a non-profit research institution devoted to the Human Phenome Initiative. His responsibilities included implementing technology for high-throughput genomics, proteomics, clinical, wearable, single-cell, immunological, and microbiome assays, participating in organizational strategy, forming and managing strategic partnerships and collaborations, developing commercial opportunities, interfacing with the broader scientific community, participating in scientific interpretations, publications, and translation into clinical practice, and contributing to education and outreach to physicians, participants, and the public. During much of this time, he was also a Senior Visiting Scientist at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato, CA.

Director of Translational Medicine for Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH; January 2017-January 2022), a large health care provider with 51 hospitals and 119,000 employees. He reported to the PSJH Chief Science Officer and was responsible for forming and managing strategic partnerships among PSJH clinicians and researchers, building outside collaborations, implementing technology for translational medicine, to include high-throughput genomics, proteomics, and single cell assays, developing commercial opportunities, and interfacing with the broader scientific community.

Founder, Owner, and Chief Executive Officer of Genome Project Solutions, Inc. (2007-2015), a company dedicated to genome sequencing and analysis. He led dozens of whole genome sequencing projects with both academic and corporate partners and built large-scale databases for their interpretation.

Head of Comparative Genomics, scientist at Berkeley National Laboratory, and member of the Senior Management Team of the DOE Joint Genome Institute (2000-2007, and continuing as a Guest Researcher until 2015), one of the world's largest genome centers, where he helped to manage an annual budget of $65 million and led an independently funded research laboratory. There, he created the DOE “Community Sequencing Program,” a $20 million per year project, which allowed the JGI to become a “DOE User Facility,” effectively converting it into the world’s premier center for comparative genomics.