American Esoteric execs resurface with oral venture

Group secures backing from same investor that helped previous company grow to $100M+

Email | Print By Geert De Lombaerde

Brian Carr

A group of clinical laboratory veterans has launched a new Nashville-based company focused on oral medicine.

OralDNA Labs Inc. has set up shop in — where else, really — Brentwood and is led by President and CEO Brian Carr, who led American Esoteric Laboratories until it was acquired by an Australian company 19 months ago. Thomas Nabors will be its chairman and chief dental officer.

Carr has brought along a good portion of his AEL team and secured funding from an investor group led by Oak Investment Partners, which has offices in Connecticut, Minneapolis and Silicon Valley. Oak also invested in AEL, but its most prominent local investment was in Psychiatric Solutions.

In a statement, the company said Oak Hill will “play an important role as the Company identifies potential acquisitions and seeks additional resources to scale the organization.”

Company officials could not immediately be reached for comment this morning.

OralDNA will initially focus on selling lab tests for periodontal disease — its first two products detect bacteria and analyze specific genes — but plans to expand to other areas of oral disease.