DOGGY DNA: Unique startup has roots at Cornell – Ithaca Journal

Matt Weinstein , mweinstein@ithacajournal.com | @SteinTime44 4:55 p.m. ET April 22, 2017

Embark Dog DNA Test is not the first dog DNA test, but it's the most comprehensive available to consumers. Brothers Ryan and Adam Boyko partnered with Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and Spencer Wells, a pioneer in consumer genetics, to found Embark. Wochit

Ryan Boyko traveled all over the world to give DNA tests to village dogs.(Photo: Provided photo)

Brothers Ryan and Adam Boyko always had a family dog growing up, but they never gave much thought to turning their love for dogs into a business.

Even while pursuing higher education Ryan has graduate degrees in public health and ecology from Yale University and the University of California at Davis and Adam has a doctorate in biology from Purdue University the brothers were more focused on human genetics and ecology.

One day a few years ago at the genetics lab at Cornell University, Adam began a project looking at pure-bred dogs and for the first time began to think about dogs as a genetic system.

It kind of bugged me that there are millions of dogs in the world and the vast majority arent pure-bred dogs, and people really didnt know much about them at all, said Adam Boyko, who is now an assistant professor in biomedical sciences at Cornells College of Veterinary Medicine. If they thought about the dogs at all, they just thought they were a random mutt mix.

The brothers later began collecting genetic data of village dogs from all over the world, building a database of valuable information regarding diseases, medical conditions and breeding. As interest in their work began to grow, so did the idea for a consumer business which could help dog owners learn important information about their pets.

Embark Veterinary Inc. the company the brothers founded by partnering with Cornell and consumer genetics pioneer Spencer Wells is the result of nearly a decade of research. The Embark DNA Test, which sells on their website for $199, can trace a canines ancestry and disease risk using the companys huge database of 20,000 samples which was built from testing village dogs and the thousands of samples from the Cornell Veterinary Biobank.

Ryan Boyko traveled all over the world to give DNA tests to village dogs, setting up makeshift labs wherever he was at.(Photo: Provided photo)

The test has been a hit with dog owners and has received glowing reviews since hitting the market last year. Canine Journal gave the test 4.5 out of 5 stars and reviewer Sally Jones said Embarks genetic health screening is, paws down, the best youll find for an at-home dog DNA test (Embark blows other DNA dog tests out of the water). Amazon has given the test a score of 4.8 out of 5 based on 36 consumer reviews.

My husband did not want to spend $200 for a dog DNA test but I convinced him its worth it for our spaniel Jackson, said Erin Groover, who lives in Mission Viejo, Calif, with her husband Jeff and two sons. We were both amazed when we got the results. Jackson has six distinct breeds and although it did reveal a future medical condition, now we know and can brace for it.

It takes a village

Years before Embark was created, Adam Boyko was having lunch with his adviser Carlos Bustamante, who had just returned from Venezuela and made a remark about the small size of the village dogs in the area. Bustamante, who was a biology professor at Cornell University before joining Stanford University, suggested a transect study of village dogs in the Americas. Boyko, who remembered his brother Ryan was taking a honeymoon in Africa later in the year, replied, How about Africa?

Within a couple months the Boykos received seed money from Cornell to do a pilot program in Puerto Rico, and then Ryan set off to Africa with a bunch of butterfly needles and a centrifuge to begin the collecting of data.

They key concept for a village dog is that it is free breeding. Most village dogs are free ranging, but even those tied up are not spayed or neutered. In closed breeding populations which are typically owned as pets every breed has the same type of ears, a consistent coat color and coat type. With the natural breeding of village dogs, there are no fixed traits and lots of variation in shape and color. The village dogs in some areas can be smaller, weighing from 12 to 30 pounds, while village dogs in another part of the world can range from 40 to 80 pounds.

Looking at village dogs, they kind of looked like they were evolved like a natural population, Adam Boyko said.

The study in Africa was published by the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation provided funding for the brothers to take more samples. They eventually traveled most of the world sampling village dogs, constructing a comprehensive analyses of the geographic and population structure of the dogs and how they fit in compared to wild canids and pure bred dogs. Ryan did much of the travelling collecting samples and Adam mostly spent time in the lab.

Ryan Boyko traveled all over the world to give DNA tests to village dogs.(Photo: Provided photo)

The research showed village dogs are much more diverse than a purebred or mixed breed. Many areas of the world have village dogs descending from European dogs in colonial time (when Europeans traveled new lands, they often brought dogs, chickens and pigs with them), but there are vast areas of the world where they are very instilled in indigenous populations with not much mixture coming from modern dogs. Diversity was particularly high in Asia specifically Mongolia and Nepal which is likely a reflection of the original domestication of dogs, Adam Boyko says. They are working on sampling more central Asian and east Asian dogs to look for patterns.

Embarking on a consumer business

The Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine has an extensive collection of samples from owners donating their dogs DNA for research. Owners eventually began asking for information about their dogs gathered from the samples and the brothers realized they may have an idea for a business.

It was clear there was a demand not being met by commercial dog DNA tests, Adam Boyko said. Most treat them as a commodity to make the cheapest test possible so the consumer doesnt pay a ton of money but still feels they are getting results.

We thought if we did a cutting-edge research, maybe not the cheapest on the market but absolutely the most comprehensive, there is good demand for that. So far its proven to be the case.

The Embark Dog DNA Test provides a wealth of information for owners, and the most important is information about health and diseases. Owners swab the inside of their dogs mouths and mail the results back to Embark.

The MDR1 gene mutation, which causes sensitivity to certain drugs, is common among many breeds and important to identify so a dog can avoid adverse reactions to medications. The test can also find inherited eye disorders and bleeding disorders, which owners would want to know before a dog has any surgical procedure. The test also can spot later onset conditions like degenerative myopathy, so owners can look out for it, reduce the severity and make the dogs livelihood better.

The test also can identify breeds, which has surprised many owners thinking they own a certain breed but testing shows the dog is a completely different breed. Matt Barton, the companys CTO, received a shocking surprise about his adopted dog Aussie, who he had assumed was a Bichon Frise. The dog was actually a Schnoodle with no traces of Bichon Frise.

For Matt this was earth shattering news; he went into hiding for a while, Adam Boyko joked.

Ryan Boyko traveled all over the world to give DNA tests to village dogs.(Photo: Provided photo)

The Embark team recently worked the 2017 Puppy Bowl in February, testing the dogs and supplying statistics for the broadcast on Animal Planet. The teams base of operations is in Austin, Texas, but they also have an office at Cornell.

The future looks bright for Embark, which is hoping to ramp up the number of employees shortly. Embark currently has 14 employees. With a data collection constantly growing, the Boykos hope to keep expanding the depth of information gathered from the testing.

If we can take steps to prevent dogs from suffering or provide information to help owners be prepared for certain conditions to develop, we have to do it, Adam Boyko said.

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DOGGY DNA: Unique startup has roots at Cornell - Ithaca Journal