History of Mirafit

Mirafit fbcx had its beginnings in a research laboratory in Wayne State University’s School of Medicine.  In 1983 Dr. Artiss, his colleagues and students published an article describing a method for the determination of triglyceride (fat) levels in human blood.  Within a year their method became recognized as the state-of-the-art for the measurement of fat levels and remains so today.  In order to measure triglycerides the fat must first be digested into smaller pieces with an enzyme called lipase.  This is much the same process that occurs in the small bowel before fat can be absorbed.  In their method Artiss et al. used a naturally occurring fiber, α-cyclodextrin, to capture the pieces of fat referred to fatty acids.

Fast forwarding to the fall of 2001, Dr. Artiss happened to hear a talk given by a physician in which he described a particular morbidity or disease state that was caused by high levels of free fatty acids in type 2 diabetics.  The proverbial light bulb went on and Artiss began asking his respected colleagues at Wayne State University who did work with animals in the area of type 2 diabetes.  Everyone that he asked recommended Dr. K-L Catherine Jen, professor and chair of nutrition and food science at WSU.  One cold wet November day in 2001 the two doctors met for the first time and Artiss sketched out a very nebulous idea.  Dr. Jen took, what might best be described as, a concept and designed the first animal experiment around it.

The first experiment proved the original idea to be wrong, the data was much too good to be consistent with their initial theory.  The data was in fact far, far better than the two researchers could possibly have hoped for.  What followed was months of data analysis in an attempt to explain their wonderful results.  What slowly emerged was the fact that the fiber was not binding individual fatty acids but in fact was coating or complexing with entire fat droplets.  This was truly an eureka moment as this complexing phenomenon had hitherto never been reported and in fact flew in the face of the existing dogma.

Following full disclosure to Wayne State University the two inventors turned entrepreneurs, acquired the rights to the technology from the university and developed the product now known as Mirafit fbcx (fat binding complexer).
Here’s something that you’re not likely to find on anyone else’s web site. If you’re interested, you can follow the links to the abridged curriculum vitas’ of each of us. Rather dry reading, but we want you to know that we are real people.

K-L Catherine Jen, Ph.D. - vitae
Joseph D. Artiss, Ph.D., FACB - vitae