Dr. Nathan S. Bryan, born in a small Texas town, overcame early life challenges to become a leading scientist in nitric oxide research. Inspired by a lecture from Nobel Laureate Dr. Louis Ignarro, he pursued groundbreaking discoveries in cardiovascular health, anti-aging, and nitric oxide supplementation. His research led to the development of N1O1 products, the first solid-dose nitric oxide therapy. Now, his mission is to revolutionize healthcare by making nitric oxide technology widely available through skincare, supplements, and FDA-approved therapies. 🚀
Dr. Nathan S. Bryan’s Journey to Unlocking Nitric Oxide
I was born November 26, 1973 in Bryan, Texas. I grew up in a loving family in Lexington Texas. I was the second child by my parents. I have an older brother Marty who is 20 months my senior and a younger half-brother from my father, Justin who is 10 years my junior. My dad was an entrepreneur and owned several businesses growing up. My mom was a housewife. We were not rich growing up but we always had what we needed and my brother and I felt loved by both of our parents. My parents divorced when I was 7 years old and that really was a traumatic experience for my brother and me.
I attended 5 different schools before 6th grade. The only constant is my life was change. I finally found stability and enrolled in Caldwell Middle School in 1987. My brother and I were living with our uncle at the time. We learned to ride horses and rope. During my time in middle school and high school I was involved in youth rodeos where I competed in calf roping. In 1987, I had my best year and finished 3rd in Texas in my age group. During my sophomore year, I moved into my own apartment in Caldwell. I was the only kid in school who could sign his own report card since I was completely independent. I was class President all 4 years in High School, I was President of the Future Farmers of America, President of National Honor Society and also President of Business Professionals of America. I worked 25-30 hours per week at a local full-service gas station after school and on weekends in order to pay my rent, truck payment and insurance. I graduated Caldwell High School in 1992 at the top of my class.
After spending one year at Texas A&M University, I transfer to the University of Texas at Austin to continue my studies in the College of Natural Science pursuing a degree in Biochemistry. I had always had an interest in science and medicine but this really became apparent to me when I was a student at UT Austin. My high school counselor and teachers encouraged me to pursue a degree in Engineering since I was really good at science and math. I did take some Engineering classes early on at UT but that did not interest me at all. During my sophomore year at UT, I had an opportunity to do undergraduate research in biochemistry in the lab of Jon Robertus, Ph.D. Dr. Robertus was an expert in protein purification and X-ray crystallography. While most undergraduates I knew were going to ballgames and fraternity parties, I learned how to over-express specific proteins in bacteria, then isolate the protein from the bacteria in order to study its structure and function. This provided science a strategy to gain a better understanding of what may go wrong in many diseases by understanding specific proteins’ structure and function. Throughout my time at UT, I worked evenings at Outback Steakhouse, cooking and waiting tables. I would take classes in the mornings and early afternoons and then work from 4-10 and sometimes later 6-7 days per week in order to pay bills. This was really good money. I graduate from UT Austin in 1997. I worked for a few years in industry and quickly realized I was not fulfilled.
In 2000, I enrolled at LSU School of Medicine in their Ph.D. program in Molecular and Cellular Physiology. The first two years was devoted to didactic lectures similar to the curriculum track of the first two years of medical school. As students, we were also required to rotate through research labs to provide us exposure to different areas of research. I really enjoyed the classwork and learning new things. It was during my first year at LSU when I was introduced to the science of nitric oxide. Two years earlier in 1998, a Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three U.S. scientists collectively for their discoveries of nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.
As part of the lecture series at LSU, they invited Lou Ignarro, Ph.D. to come and give a lecture to the students, faculty and staff at LSU Health Science Center. Dr. Ignarro was one of the scientists that was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his work and discoveries around nitric oxide. I had a chance to meet Dr. Ignarro, join him and the department for dinner that night and have a conversation with him. It was my first time to ever meet and interact with a Nobel Prize winner. Dr. Ignarro was such a humble man who was encouraging and seemed to have a genuine interest in supporting young students in the nitric oxide field. I will never forget how he made me feel that day and I felt more motivated than ever. Dr. Ignarro indicated that although the science of nitric oxide was pretty well defined and its importance established, it was not clear how to develop safe and effective therapeutics for nitric oxide since it is a gas and once produced, dissipates and is gone in less than one second. He also told me that if someone could figure out how to deliver nitric oxide safely and effectively, it would change the landscape of disease and change the world. It immediately became clear to me that this was an important area of research with so much to be discovered. This was really the turning point in my life. I had a new passion for science, creativity and innovation and I had a path forward with meaning.
At that time in the early 2000’s nitric oxide was recognized as a gas produced in the body and once produced it is gone in less than a second. It is produced at very low levels, nanomolar concentrations (one billionth of a mole or the number of atoms of a molecule). However, over time our body’s ability to produce nitric oxide decreases. We learned that the decrease in nitric oxide is, in large part, what was responsible for age related disease, including cardiovascular disease, the number one killer of men and women worldwide. At that time, it was extremely difficult and complicated to measure nitric oxide gas or detect low concentrations of nitric oxide metabolites. During my Ph.D. work, we were able to develop analytical methods which could detect physiological amounts of nitric oxide in biological systems. I completed my Ph.D. in less than 3 years and then completed a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship at Boston University Medical Center.
After my fellowship, I was recruited by Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., 1998 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of nitric oxide, to join faculty at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas School of Medicine in Houston. Now that I had complete intellectual freedom as an independent investigator, I immediately started efforts to develop technology that could deliver nitric oxide and help to restore nitric oxide production in patients. Eventually the University starting filing patents based on my ideas and data. Over the next few years, my patents were issued and today I have dozens of issued U.S. and International patents.
The results of my discoveries and technology led to the development of the most effective nitric oxide products on the market with our N1o1 brand of products. The Nobel Prize in 1998 was awarded for the discovery of nitric oxide. I was the first to produce a solid dose form of nitric oxide gas in the form of a viable product. We have also integrated that technology into a topical nitric oxide product for skin care and beauty. Today we are moving this technology through the FDA for drug therapy for diseases such as heart disease, Alzheimers’ disease and topical drugs for diabetic, non-healing wounds. I am witnessing what Dr. Ignarro predicted, nitric oxide would change the landscape of medicine and change the world.
Links:
N1O1 Products: N1O1 product line for Dr. Bryan’s innovations in nitric oxide therapy.
Dr. Nathan S. Bryan’s Biography: More background for About Dr. Nathan S. Bryan
Nitric Oxide Research: 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded for discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule.
