Creator of novel technologies in cross-disciplinary areas to identify and administer personalized therapeutic interventions for genetic disorders — Sean James Miller, CEO & CSO of Pluripotent Diagnostics (PDx)

Neurodegenerative diseases are prevalent and a significant source of healthcare expenditure. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's diseases, vascular, and frontotemporal dementias begin nearly 10-20 years prior to the clinical manifestation. With a wealth of digital, scientific, and medical data at our fingertips, now is the time to transform the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases. Today the diseases that cause dementia are diagnosed when symptoms like memory loss start. To have the best chance of halting them, we need to intervene decades earlier, when these diseases first begin to take hold.

While most institutions around the world are speculating that in the future, companies can use digital fingerprints to help doctors detect the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, Dr. Sean James Miller and his team at Pluripotent Diagnostics have created patented solutions to enable early detection of neurodegenerative and genetic diseases and administer personalized therapeutic interventions to patients of any age. Dr. Miller and Pluripotent Diagnostics envision a world free of genetic disorders.

Dr. Sean James Miller, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Scientific Officer, exclusively spoke to CIO Bulletin. Below is an excerpt of the conversation.

Q. What are the most important attributes of successful leaders today?

I view leadership in two words, fearless guardian. A fearless guardian takes the hardest hits and weakens them for the team to continue to push while ensuring the team's success.

Q. What was the path you took to get to where you are today?

For most people, life isn't easy. Especially in adolescence. I grew up in an undesirable area of Pennsylvania. The thing I am motivated by the most, to date, is never to end up going back.

A pivotal moment in my life was during my senior year of high school involving my calculus teacher, Mr. Neiswender, who drove me to dream big, and that's precisely what I did.

In 2008, I left my hometown and started my career in molecular medicine. During my time as an undergraduate, apart from my academic scholarship, I had no other source of income. I couldn't afford rent, food, or a traditional lifestyle. With the motivation to never "go back," I found myself in a molecular Alzheimer's disease laboratory. In no time, I was fully dedicated and grew deeply passionate about neurobiology.

Three years later, I graduated with a degree in Organismal Physiology and Molecular Biology. I continued my medical research at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi to further the understanding of underlying neurogenetics in Alzheimer's disease. Throughout my time at Harvard, I had the opportunity to contribute to leading studies published in top-tier journals such as Science.

Five years after starting my undergraduate research, I was admitted into the Molecular and Cellular Medicine program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. My dissertation was heavily focused on identifying novel cell types in the adult brain. Mainly, I found a recently unidentified non-neuronal cell that contributes to the overall communication of neurons in health and disease.

In 2018, I defended my thesis and relocated to Stanford University School of Medicine to conduct my studies on the demise of the blood-brain barrier in aging and aging-associated diseases with Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray. A year later, I founded Pluripotent Diagnostics (PDx) in my Mountain View apartment in Silicon Valley with the sole mission to eliminate genetic diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's disease.

Q. What have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome?

Maintaining the world's best team is nearly impossible without funding. As PDx advances and makes significant strides in early disease detection, this is becoming less of an issue. Nonetheless, this formulated the strongest team to cope with the challenges that entail a developing organization.

Q. How do you keep your team motivated despite conflicts and obstacles?

Each team member comes with different experiences and requires a unique approach to their motivation. With that said, I take a holistic method by individually understanding my team members both in work and life.

Positive reinforcement has always proven to be the best approach of mine. Motivation in STEM is of the essence; failures are not uncommon. My team knows when times get hard to continue to push "Forward." I like to say, "If you are looking down, you are not looking forward."

When it comes to conflicts in the workspace, it is important to be impartial and understanding of all parties involved. The key is identifying the etiology of the conflict and taking care of it at its origin.

At the end of the day, if one team member takes a step backward, we have another team member that takes a step forward. I want to conclude that this is imperative for success because "Teamwork makes the dream work."

Q. Why was Pluripotent established? What is the history of the company?

Pluripotent Diagnostics was founded due to the complete lack of early detection systems for neurodegenerative disorders. Lack of early disease detection creates a lack of ability for early therapy to mitigate the disease, particularly before post-mitotic neurons die.

Q. How is the firm unique when compared to its competitors?

Pluripotent Diagnostics provides the most comprehensive biological profile for every patient, going beyond just genetics. Our approaches include clinical data, genetics, and brain scans for every client to make the most robust modeling possible for every patient.

Q. What is Pluripotent into, and how does it benefit its customers?

Recently, Pluripotent Diagnostics finalized its international patent on "Methods to Detect Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis" (ALS) by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach of artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, machine learning, and genetics. As we like to say, "It all starts with a swab."

Q. What are your recent product launches?

Pluripotent Diagnostics is proud to offer the first ALS disease classifier for the prediction of disease. By targeting early for our clients, we can push towards patient-specific genetic therapy before neuronal death. We are also currently finalizing our whole-genome sequencing service to identify any mutations in any gene of the human genome.

Q. How are genetic disorders caused? What is one of the most common genetic disorders?

Genetics are not trivial. The genetic complexities on a superficial level can be separated into de novo (spontaneous) or inherited (familial).

A Relentlessly Reliable Leader

Sean James Miller, PhD is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Pluripotent Diagnostics (PDx). He has over 13 years’ experience in stem cell, neurodegenerative, and genetic medicine. He completed his pre-doctoral, doctoral, and post-doctoral research at Drexel, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Miller has over 15 authored publications in top tier journals, including: Science, Neuron, Nature, and Nature Neuroscience and his papers have been cited over 1500 times in peer-reviewed scientific publications. Dr. Miller holds patents on drug development and gene therapy for neurodegenerative disorders.