Boston AI startup helping people get answers about their own health

BOSTON — Many of us are using AI more and more in our everyday lives. Now, a Boston start-up is allowing you to ask questions based on your DNA—to get better answers about your health.

Alex Kotlar’s questions about his health grew from his real-life experiences

“I was in Kiev and I was born just a month and a half before Chernobyl exploded,” said Alex Kotlar, the CEO of Bystro AI. “Eventually a couple years later we made it out with four hundred dollars in our pocket as refugees from Ukraine.”

Kotlar’s family moved to the Boston area—but years later—they started to experience major health problems.

“When I was in college, unfortunately we had a cluster of cancers that happened all within around a year period and the folks the three of my family members died within just roughly six months of each other,” said Kotlar.

While at Boston University, Kotlar experienced his own health issues.

“After I came back from medical leave, it made me want to become a geneticist or a doctor to cure cancer so that nobody would have to suffer like my family did,” said Kotlar.

Kotlar focused on mixing genetics with computer programming to create a google-like search engine for genetics—helping people like himself get better answers to their personal health questions.

“We all have questions about our health eventually, or things that we just want to understand about our bodies,” said Kotlar. “And right now, the only real way that you can do that is go to your doctor, which is a slow and very expensive process. And unfortunately, your doctor isn’t a trained geneticist. And so they can’t really help you with kind of some of the detailed answers way ahead of the symptoms coming up.”

Kotlar co-founded Bystro AI. Even though it’s currently in use by academic centers, it turns the complex world of genetic data into something searchable and understandable even for the average person.

“The last about three or four years I started having some physical issues and ailments that I couldn’t really pinpoint what the what the reason to those things were,” said Mason Alban, the Chief Revenue Officer at Bystro AI.

Mason Alban is the CRO at Bystro AI—but before he got involved—he was searching for answers about his own ailments. He input the results from his genetic tests into the platform and got life-changing answers.

“So with that information that I had, I was able to go then, you know to my physician and say, listen, I might not need to have this surgery, right?” said Alban. “And so just altering my diet and you know, being more disciplined, being more aware of the foods aware of the foods that I can and I can’t eat.”

Alban felt better in just a matter of weeks and realized how much genetics plays a role in individual health.

“It really helped me out, you know, to find the right information that worked uniquely for me,” said Alban. “And the goal and the hope is that we can help other people do the same thing, right?”

Both Alban and Kotlar say while this platform makes it easy for anyone to understand the data that’s coming out—they should still consult their doctor before making any medical decisions. But they both have been able to take proactive approaches on their health to live a better, fuller life—and now hope others can do the same.

“It’s been thirteen years of work building the foundational system and to have it all kind of come together now is is tremendously rewarding,” said Kotlar.

Bystro AI is being rolled out to the public for a small monthly fee. If you’re wondering about the name? Bystro in Russian means fast—because Kotlar wanted this to be a quick tool to generate answers about your health.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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