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Concordia grad has the right chemistry

Denis Brion leveraged his education to launch marine-sourced health supplement company Biomolecules for Life
July 25, 2016
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By James Gibbons, BA 11, MA 13


As a graduate student in Concordia’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Denis Brion, PhD 07, spent two months aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research vessel Amundsen, which was stationed on a plateau of dense ice in the Arctic Ocean.

Denis Brion Brion spent time on the Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen, while researching organisms living in sub-zero arctic waters

“I was there during the ‘black period’ of the year, as they call winter up there,” says Brion, who ventured to the area north of Inuvik, N.W.T., in 2003. “There’s about three hours of daylight. Even then you don’t see the sun — it just looks like sunset.”

Along with 20 other researchers stationed upon the over 5,000 ton icebreaker, Brion was studying living organisms contained in the water’s free-floating sediments and sealed within its frozen counterpart.

That artic fieldwork informed Brion’s PhD dissertation, Organic matter in preservation in marine sediments, and his post-Concordia entrepreneurial endeavours. In 2013, Brion founded and is vice-president of Biomolecules for Life Incorporated, based in Moncton, N.B.

“My company harvests active ingredients from organisms in the water — mainly algae,” says Brion, referring to the ubiquitous oceanic plant-like group. “We then use those molecular bits to manufacture health products.’”

The first ware Brion and his company have brought to market is called “OceanSlim.” Coming as a soft-gel capsule, Brion says his merchandise promotes natural weight loss.

The Health Canada-approved OceanSlim works on three levels, according to Brion: it inhibits fat formation, boosts the baseline number of calories the body requires, even while inactive, and it curbs appetite. 

Canadian Coast Guard research vessel Amundsen Brion spent time on the Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen, while researching organisms living in sub-zero arctic waters.

“Most people lose almost half a kilogram per week,” says Brion of the product that sells exclusively online. “It’s not healthy to lose weight at a faster rate than that.”

One of the more challenging parts of his work, says Brion, are the production hurdles that include filing for patents in Canada and the United States, as well as submitting clinical test results to federal food and health regulatory bodies in both countries.

“It took three years to develop OceanSlim,” says Brion, who is going through the process again with two more products he hopes to retail by 2017.

While Brion oversees the lab work — which for OceanSlim took place at the startup accelerator BioAlliance Research Facilities in Charlottetown, P.E.I. — his company’s leadership falls within his bloodline.

“My father, Eric Brion, is the president. He has lots of experience in sales and marketing and acts as a business mentor” says Brion.

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