Podium finish for Genetrainer

The world's first computer guided fitness training system using a person's DNA was announced as one of the three winners of the LeWeb'13 London Startup Competition, Europe's largest technology conference.

The startup company, Genetrainer, building on University of Bristol research by its founders, Bristol PhD graduate, Ralph Pethica and Julian Gough, Professor of Bioinformatics in the University's Department of Computer Science, was selected from over 350 startups to be one of 16 finalists in the LeWeb Startup Competition.

Genetrainer provides people with personalised training plans, exercises and advice developed from their own DNA and it gives people a faster and more measurable way of achieving their individual training goals.

Heart rate, sleep and weight can all be tracked, so people can monitor their progress and fitness in real time. The system enables people's training plans and advice to be automatically synchronised with their body condition and current fitness level.

Professor Gough, speaking about Genetrainer, said: "We were delighted when it was announced we were one of the three winners of LeWeb Startup Competition.

"This is a first for the University and demonstrates how research across faculties, from bioscience to computer science, can be translated."

Genetrainer is compatible with a range of popular commercial genetic tests. People simply select their fitness goals and their results and plan are generated computationally personalised to their genetic constitution.

Genetrainer received their second prize on the LeWeb'13 London plenary stage on Thursday 6 June, during the LeWeb'13 London conference.