Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Segterra introduces online blood test for athletes

By Julie M. Donnelly, Boston Business Journal

Segterra Inc., a Lexington-based provider of online health tools, has launched InsideTracker, which uses blood tests as a baseline to measure and improve health status or athletic performance. Segterra raised $500,000 in seed funding in August from the Massachusetts Technology Development Corp. (MTDC), a quasi-public venture firm, and private investors.

Segterra says InsideTracker is the only service that incorporates a simple blood test to measure the vitamins and nutrients in your blood, and uses it to make recommendations to optimize health and athletic performance. The service is geared towards triathletes, marathoners and other endurance athletes, as well as those just interested in better nutrition and maintaining a healthy weight.

“As an investor, MTDC is pleased to see the progress made by Segterra and the launch of InsideTracker,” Nick Pappas, vice president at MTDC, said in a statement. “The Segterra team has done a great job to create a product that can significantly impact peoples’ lives.” Segterra was founded by Dr. Gil Blander, Dr. Christian Reich and Dr. David Lester. The company’s chairman is Dr. David Sinclair, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Sirtris, which was bought by GlaxoSmithKline in 2008.