Esteemed Bench Of Industry Leaders, Physicians, And Scientists Unveil New Health Clinic And Research Institute, Metrodora, To Advance Women's Health

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, a cross-industry bench of leaders including physicians, scientists, and technologists unveiled Metrodora, a national center of excellence for the treatment and research of complex neuroimmune disorders. Among today's announcing co-founders are neurogastroenterologist and rare disease specialist Dr. Laura A. Pace, serving as CEO of Metrodora; interdisciplinary scientist Dr. James Hemp, serving as Chief Scientific Officer of Metrodora; and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, serving as President of the Metrodora Foundation. With over 20 million people in the United States — primarily women — living with neuroimmune disorders, Metrodora will focus on advancing women's health by introducing an entirely new way to treat women impacted by these conditions through a holistic view of the full patient and advancing research on these conditions. Today's launch also coincides with the annual October Awareness Month for Dysautonomia, which includes many neuroimmune disorders that impact millions of women around the world.

Metrodora will integrate a multidisciplinary clinic, center for health creation, and research institute to advance women's health through the reimagination of care and the pursuit of cures for neuroimmune disorders - which involve dysfunction of both the nervous and immune systems. This includes many neurological, immunological, autoimmune, and gastrointestinal disorders, as well as post infectious syndromes such as long COVID. These disorders disproportionately affect women and are commonly misdiagnosed, under-researched, and under-funded. Metrodora is a healthcare ecosystem designed to close the gap in the diagnosis, care, and cure of neuroimmune disorders.

"I'm proud to introduce Metrodora as an entirely new way to treat women suffering from neuroimmune disorders, which have long been underfunded, under-researched and, to this day, remain without a clear path for a cure," said Dr. Laura A. Pace, Co-Founder and CEO of Metrodora. "Our mission is to create a center of excellence that will allow women to have equitable access to medical treatment and life changing care. As we look ahead, Metrodora will build the first data-rich biobank focused specifically on neuroimmune disorders — an enormous step forward as we look to finding new treatments, and ultimately a cure, for these all-too-common disorders."

Metrodora is led by Chief Executive Officer Dr. Laura A. Pace. Dr. James Hemp serves as Chief Scientific Officer and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo serves as President of the Metrodora Foundation. Anthony Philippakis, Chief Data Officer at the Broad Institute, and Carol Suh, Partner at ARCH Ventures, will also be joining the Metrodora Foundation Board. Metrodora's research initiatives and partnerships are already well underway, while the Metrodora clinic will open its doors to patients in a 50,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the summer of 2022.

"As a patient myself, I've seen first-hand how inadequate the current medical system and research on these conditions are. With Metrodora, we're bringing an entirely new, patient-centric approach to both the care and cure of neuroimmune disorders by having a team of specialists work together to address the needs of the whole patient," said Fidji Simo, Instacart CEO and Co-Founder & Board Member of Metrodora. "We will be leveraging the latest advances in technology and biotechnology in order to accelerate research and will bring patients, scientists, doctors and technologists under one roof. By removing the silos in both research and medicine, I believe we can improve the quality of life for millions of women today and for generations to come."

The Metrodora Institute will be a destination multidisciplinary clinic and research foundation, including:

• The Metrodora Clinic and Center for Health Creation will bring a diverse team of outstanding clinical specialists to create a complete health ecosystem that integrates neurology, immunology, and gastroenterology care with genetics, pain management, comprehensive rehabilitation programs, nutritional and neurocognitive therapies, and telehealth services to provide world-class patient-centered care within our state-of-the-art facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, opening summer of 2022. With the Center for Health Creation, Metrodora will help patients regain and maintain their health, instead of only caring for them when they are sick.
   
• The Metrodora Foundation will be a global leader in the fight for women's health. The foundation will support this mission through research, education, and advocacy. The Metrodora Institute and Foundation will partner with patients to offer personal medicine trials and create the first of its kind high dimensional data rich biobank in this space. Metrodora will also accelerate research on neuroimmune disorders through innovative partnerships with leading scientists, technology, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies - such as Ozette AI, Cour Pharmaceuticals, and Arome Science.

Co-Founders Dr. Laura A. Pace, Dr. James Hemp, and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo have come together to challenge years of medical tradition and bias through the creation of an entirely new approach to the care, and ultimately, cure of neuroimmune disorders in women. They bring with them a wide array of expertise and insights:

• Metrodora CEO Dr. Laura A. Pace is a neurogastroenterologist with board certification in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Autonomic Nervous System disorders. Additionally, she has advanced clinical training in Neurogastroenterology and Genetics. Dr. Pace is a leader in the rare disease space and for the past few years has served as co-lead for the adult program for University of Utah's NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network (NIH UDN) clinical site, Medical Board member for Dysautonomia International, and Chair of the Gastrointestinal Working Group for the International Consortium on Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders.
   
• Metrodora Chief Scientific Officer Dr. James Hemp is an interdisciplinary scientist with over 20 years of research experience spanning biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, and medicine. He has published over 40 peer reviewed journal articles and has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and several private foundations.
   
• Metrodora Co-Founder and Board Member Fidji Simo is Chief Executive Officer of Instacart and previously led the Facebook app at Facebook. Personally impacted by a neuroimmune condition, Simo brings a wealth of expertise across business, technology, and advances in artificial intelligence to develop Metrodora into the most innovative research institute on such diseases.

Looking ahead, Metrodora is partnering with leading industry and scientific partners to collaborate on research efforts and accelerate the development of more effective diagnostic tools, treatments and ultimately, cures.

For further information or to download Metrodora media assets, visit metrodora.org.  

Contact:
Goodfuse Communications
Jenifer Slaw
347-971-0906
[email protected]

SOURCE Metrodora