What Neurova Labs Measures in a Blood Draw
Updated: Sep 25
Blood tests now come up more often in conversations about brain training. That is good for the field. Numbers from a lab are harder to wave away than a satisfaction survey.
"Blood test" covers a lot of ground, though. Two tests can share a needle and a lab and still measure entirely different things. If you are evaluating a program that reports blood results, the first question to ask is what, exactly, the lab is reading.
This page answers that question for Neurova Labs.
What does Neurova Labs measure?
Neurova Labs measures RNA gene expression from whole blood, using a 22-marker panel processed by iXpressGenes, a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory. The panel is designed to track inflammatory and immune signals associated with stress and recovery. It is not used to diagnose any condition, and cohort results reported to date are observational pilot findings.
The panel is the iXpressGenes CoreSignals Panel. It is optional. Programs that run Neurova Academy can add it when they want a physiological measure to set beside what participants report about sleep, stress, and focus.
Two families of blood measures
Most blood measures you will hear about in health and wellness fall into one of two families.
The first family measures proteins. Proteins are the working parts the body builds and releases, and some of them circulate in the blood where a lab can count them. A protein level tells you how much of a substance has accumulated in the blood. Protein markers are the basis of many familiar clinical tests, and they answer many kinds of questions, from how the heart is doing to whether an injury has occurred.
The second family measures gene expression. Before a cell builds a protein, it copies the instructions from the relevant gene into a messenger molecule called RNA. Counting those RNA copies shows how active a given gene is in the cells that were sampled. A gene expression measure reads what cells are doing at the moment of the draw.
Neurova Labs works in the second family. The two families are complementary, and a result from one should never be read as a result from the other. When you see a blood figure in any brain training material, including ours, check which family it comes from before you compare it with anything.
What gene expression shows, and over what timescale
In a whole blood sample, most of the RNA comes from white blood cells, the immune cells that travel through the body. That makes whole blood a practical window onto immune and inflammatory activity. It also means a sample comes from a small self-collection kit or a routine clinic draw, and nobody has to visit a specialty lab.
Gene expression can move quickly. Immune cells adjust which genes they switch on in response to sleep, exertion, illness, stress, and many other everyday conditions. A single draw is therefore a snapshot. The value comes from comparison: the same person, measured the same way, at planned points before and after a program.
That is how Neurova Academy programs use the panel. A baseline draw comes before the first session, a second draw follows the five-day program cycle, and a follow-up draw comes later to see what held.
What the 22 markers track
The CoreSignals Panel reads 22 genes associated with inflammation, immune regulation, and the body's physiological response to stress. Some of those genes are associated with switching inflammatory activity up. Others are associated with regulating it and bringing it back down.
Reading the two groups together matters. A program that is associated with lower activity in pro-inflammatory genes and higher activity in regulatory genes tells a more coherent story than a movement in any single marker. It is also why we report a panel pattern and avoid building a claim on one gene.
What the panel does not do
A page about measurement should be judged on the limits it states. Here are ours.
It does not diagnose anything. The panel is a program measurement tool. It does not identify, rule out, or grade any disease or condition, and a result is never a substitute for a medical evaluation.
It does not measure the brain directly. It reads immune and inflammatory gene activity in blood cells. Any link to brain health runs through published research on inflammation and stress, and we describe it in those terms.
It does not detect or track brain injury. It is unrelated to point-of-care tests used to evaluate head injuries, and it shares no markers with them.
It does not predict an individual result. A cohort pattern describes a group. It does not forecast what any one person will see.
It does not make a claim about disease risk. Neurova Academy is a general wellness and cognitive training program, and nothing on this page connects it to preventing any disease.
How to read a cohort result
When Neurova Labs publishes a blood result from a cohort, it will carry four things in the same sentence or the one beside it: how many people were measured, at which timepoints, on which panel, and what kind of study produced the figure.
Our cohort results to date are observational pilot findings from community and program settings. A controlled validation study is underway.
We hold ourselves to that format because it lets a reader check our work. Ask for the same four things from anyone who shows you a blood figure.
The lab behind the panel
iXpressGenes is a veteran-led molecular diagnostics company in Huntsville, Alabama. It operates a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory, which means the lab is certified under federal laboratory quality standards and accredited by the College of American Pathologists. You can read more about the partnership in our announcement.
Where this fits
Neurova Labs builds Neurova Academy, facilitator-led cognitive training delivered in five daily sessions of about thirty minutes. We measure because we think a training program should show its work. Self-report tells you how people feel. Gene expression adds a view of what their immune cells are doing. We report both, with the limits attached.
To bring Neurova Academy to your unit, clinic, or community, visit neurovalabs.com.
Media contact: nathaniel.free@neurovalabs.com
Neurova Academy is a general wellness and cognitive training program. It is not a medical device and is not offered to diagnose, treat, cure, or mitigate any disease or condition, including concussion, traumatic brain injury, or CTE. The iXpressGenes CoreSignals Panel is not used to diagnose any condition. Outcomes described reflect observational pilot findings and are not a prediction of results for anyone else. Laboratory testing provided by iXpressGenes, a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory.
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