We are so excited to welcome RealTime Laboratories to Rupa Health! We had a great conversation with Dave Murcott, CEO of RealTime Laboratories, to learn more about the company and the tests they offer.
Introducing RealTime Laboratories!
Hi, Dave! It is great to chat with you today. How did RealTime Laboratories get started?
Dr. Hooper and Dr. Bolton founded RealTime Laboratories in 2005, but its history goes back further. Both doctors have worked together since meeting on their first day of medical school at the University of Nevada Medical School-Reno. Because they were interested in the same research, they collaborated on projects in medical school. Many of these shared projects focused on infectious diseases.
Their medical training ignited a desire to become patient-focused and not just research-oriented. Each doctor developed a commitment to provide the best patient care. The focus of their clinical practices became their patients—the art of medicine—and not just the research—the science of medicine.
Over the years, they continued to encounter patients dealing with chronic medical problems who had been to several doctors, yet none of their previous doctors could find the cause of these ailments. They realized that few doctors in the traditional medical community wanted to deal with this type of patient. These patients needed someone to listen, care, and offer solutions for their problems.
Fueled by their intellectual curiosity, grounded in their desire to help patients, and based on their research backgrounds, the doctors at RTL looked beyond simple explanations. They embarked on a search for answers to their patients’ problems. Through extensive research and detective-style problem solving, they traced many of their patients’ health issues back to an often-overlooked culprit: mold exposure!
After years of researching the effects of molds and their mycotoxins— specific poisonous chemical compounds produced by fungi—RealTime Laboratories, Inc., was formed. Now, the doctors and their caring staff provide answers to patients in need. As more research comes out and technology progresses, RealTime Laboratories will be here to continue helping those who have been ignored.
Fantastic!
Can you tell me a little bit about why testing for mycotoxins is important?
Mycotoxins are well documented for their toxic effects on the human cell, causing many problems in normal cell function. They are associated with various clinical symptoms and diseases, including kidney toxicity, immune suppression, neurotoxicity, depression, chronic fatigue, cancer, acute pulmonary hemorrhage, aplastic anemia, and birth defects.
Wow! I’d love to know more about your tests. Which are the most popular? What can they tell a patient about their health?
Our Clinical Mycotoxin Panel is our #1 ordered test. Testing for mycotoxins is a simple and non-invasive procedure, requiring only a urine sample. The RealTime Labs mycotoxin test detects 16 different mycotoxins, including 9 macrocyclic trichothecenes. Testing is done using competitive ELISA, a very sensitive detection method using antibodies prepared against mycotoxins.
Our Environmental Mold and Mycotoxin Assay (EMMA) is our 2nd most ordered test. This test requires a dust sample obtained by swiping a surface or by sending in a small piece of an air filter. We use a combination of ELISA to detect Mycotoxins and Realtime-PCR to test for the DNA of the organisms which produce them. Combining the clinical and environmental tests help doctors and patients discover not only the presence of harmful toxins in the body but the source of the exposure as well.
That is great! The EMMA test will be the first dust test we have on our platform. I love the option of combining the urine and dust test to help understand and combat a patient’s mold exposure.
You all are doing some great things over at RealTime. What is your favorite part about being in this industry?
I work with an incredibly talented team of visionaries eager to adopt new technologies to help doctors and their patients get to the root cause of an illness. We look for things other labs ignore. In many ways, I feel our lab is like a medical detective agency. When traditional diagnostics fail people, they come to RealTime Labs for answers they can't get elsewhere. It's why we call ourselves the Champions of the Undiagnosed.
I love that! What is your future vision for functional medicine?
Lab work is a critical component of functional medicine as it's often the only way to get to the root cause of an illness. Many symptoms have multiple causes, so treating the symptoms without finding the source does not solve the problem. It just creates an ongoing treatment loop. Future tests need to help doctors personalize medicine for their patients. This includes more reliance on genetic DNA testing to give a better picture of the whole person and how all of their systems are (or aren't) working together.
Yes! I agree. Combining DNA tests with other lab tests is a powerful way to personalize medicine.
Are you all working on anything new and exciting right now?
We recently added mass spectrometry services and are building our product road map. Mass spectrometry will allow us to increase the number of targets in our Mycotoxin Panel as well as test for other harmful and poisonous elements people encounter every day.
That is excellent! I look forward to hearing more about these new developments soon.
To close out, is there anything else you would like to share about RealTime Laboratories?
As they say, "often imitated, never duplicated." RealTime was the pioneer in the field of mycotoxin testing. As other labs have entered the market, they've struggled to provide consistently reproducible results; we have been, and remain, the gold standard.
Amazing! We appreciate you taking the time to speak with us and we look forward to growing our partnership with RealTime Laboratories.
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