Greenville-based chemical and diagnostics company Aconabolics, LLC may have helped scientists reverse the clock on the origins of life through a series of reactions that could be a predecessor to a major component of life, the Krebs Cycle.
Also known as the tricarboxylic acid cycle and citric acid cycle, the Krebs Cycle plays an important role as a metabolic hub of a cell.
Co-founders of Aconabolics, Trent Stubbs and Greg Springsteen, wrote in an article for the peer-reviewed science journal, Nature Chemistry, that these discoveries could help us understand how life got its start on Earth — and where across the universe life may have also sprung up.
The findings could also contribute to creating new cancer diagnostics.
“Cancer diagnostics are extremely expensive, often costing thousands of dollars for an amount less than a grain of sand. This new technology greatly expands the arsenal of compounds we can make at significantly reduced costs,” said Springsteen in a release.
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Springsteen and Stubbs created their LLC in 2018, and submitted US non-provisional and PCT patent applications after seeing how the technology could potentially help patients. The company is a member of the NEXT VMS mentoring program.
“This research will dramatically change how scientists think about the origins of life, and how we can use nature’s tricks to build better diagnostic tools,” said Stubbs.
In 2019, Aconabolics became a member of the NEXT VMS mentoring program in order to enhance their business model and take their work to a global scientific marketplace. NEXT mentors provide unbiased conflict-free, practical, and actionable advice on a personal and long-term basis striving for steady and measurable growth for their mentee businesses.
