Func Med Nation - A podcast for Functional and Integrative Medicine practitioners. · Dr. Steven Noseworthy

023 | Lab Spotlight: Vibrant Wellness with Dr. Kim Bruno

·1 hr 15 min

1. Func Med Nation’s "Lab Spotlight: Vibrant Wellness with Dr. Kim Bruno" focuses on Vibrant Wellness’s lab platform and its place in functional medicine testing. 2. Dr. Kim Bruno is introduced as Vibrant Wellness’s clinical director of outreach and medical science liaison, and the host notes her doctorate from National University of Health Sciences in Chicago, her certified clinical nutritionist board exam, and her postgraduate training through the Institute of Functional Medicine and the Clinical Nutrition Certification Board. 3. The episode asks how Vibrant Wellness works, why it calls itself a technology company, and what Dr. Bruno’s clinical background adds to the lab conversation. 4. Dr. Bruno says her route into functional medicine was not linear, beginning with an interest in healthcare, pre-med sports medicine, and a fascination with biochemistry and nutrition. 5. She says a chiropractor named Dr. Julie influenced her move into chiropractic school because that practice already used supplements, herbals, and root-cause care before "functional medicine" was a common label. 6. Dr. Bruno says she chose National University in Chicago because it had a wider view of chiropractic and let her pursue certified clinical nutrition alongside her DC degree. 7. She describes early practice as food sensitivity testing first, then deeper work on gut issues and toxicities when those results looked more like symptoms than root causes. 8. In 2014, her husband’s Lyme diagnosis pushed her into chronic infection work, and she says she learned alongside a colleague who treated him. 9. She says later work with Lyme patients, an immunology clinic, and chronically ill patients made the shift to Vibrant feel natural, especially after pandemic burnout. 10. Dr. Bruno says Vibrant was established in 2008 and traces the company to CEO JJ, who helped develop Intel’s processing chip before exploring whether that microchip concept could be applied to laboratory testing. 11. She says Vibrant’s original aim was to create reasonably priced tests with high accuracy, because she believes older lab methods like ELISA have not changed much since the 1970s. 12. She explains that the company’s biochip approach uses silicon wafers, tiny chips, and light-based detection to test antibodies, peptides, proteins, and microarrays with less cross-reactivity than some traditional methods. 13. She gives a tick-borne testing example, saying an ELISA plate uses 96 wells for one protein per well, while Vibrant’s chips are about 2 millimeters by 2 millimeters and can hold 100 proteins. 14. She says that smaller format lets Vibrant test a couple of drops of blood for multiple Borrelia bands, co-infections, and viruses while increasing sensitivity and specificity. 15. Dr. Bruno says Vibrant’s goal is to offer "more for less" by using automation and compact hardware instead of large labs, large machines, and heavy technician staffing. 16. She says the chip platform is proprietary and patented, while the company also uses PCR for stool testing and mass spectrometry for urinary mycotoxins. 17. She explains that Vibrant’s stool testing adds multiple gene sequencing and bead beating to PCR, and she says the mycotoxin work uses mass spec with sensitivity down to parts per quadrillion. 18. Dr. Bruno says a new urine test will measure 18 categories of oxidative-stress damage products and pair them with 20 genetic SNPs tied to glutathione and detoxification pathways. 19. The interview format is technical but conversational, with the host repeatedly pausing to ask clarifying questions about methods, cost, reference ranges, and clinical relevance. 20. Practitioners who want lab-method details and functional medicine testing strategy will get the most value; listeners wanting a nontechnical brand profile may skip it.

As heard by us

A clinician-facing tour of an oxidative-stress panel, with a provider-oriented framing and concrete marker detail.

The episode stays with Dr. Kim Bruno of Vibrant Labs and keeps the focus on her background in chiropractic medicine, clinical nutrition, private practice, and immunology. That gives the conversation a practiced, peer-to-peer feel.

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Why you'd press play

You want the oxidative-stress panel explained before the marker list turns into alphabet soup.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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