About Us

Our Story

Every parent of a neurodiverse child knows the drill: one specialist says “wait and see,” another pushes expensive labs, and online forums feel like a maze of conflicting advice. Meanwhile your child still battles stomach pain, sleepless nights, and sudden tantrums and meltdowns—and you’re left wondering which rabbit hole to chase next. With autism now affecting roughly 1 in 36 kids and other neurodevelopmental conditions close to 1 in 10, this exhausting search for real, science-backed answers has become an all-too-common family journey.

KiteHealth was built to give families answers they can trust—without the endless runaround. Our painless, at-home urine and stool tests use child-specific gut-brain markers developed from decades of research, then pair the results with an easy app that tracks mood, sleep, and GI symptoms. In plain language, we translate the data into step-by-step nutrition tweaks, supplement options, and questions to take to your doctor—all guided by pediatric practitioners who get it. No more guessing, no more “try this and hope.” Just clear next steps you can trust, so you can spend less time searching and more time helping your child thrive.

Our Story

Melina Gardeazabal, BSc Eng, MBA

Founder & CEO

“Hi, I’m Melina—mom and founder of KiteHealth. I built this company to give families the gut-brain answers I once struggled to find. Every family deserves easy-to-understand answers—and a clear next step—when their child’s wellbeing is at stake.”

Melina is a longtime health-tech product leader and hands-on mom who turned late-night research into KiteHealth. After years of piecing together diets, tests, and specialist visits to ease her child’s persistent gut troubles, she set out to build the resource she wished had existed: a kid-friendly, science-first path that translates lab data into everyday actions parents can actually use. To deepen her expertise, Melina earned a Master’s in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King’s College London with a focus on the microbiome, a program globally recognized for cutting-edge brain-gut research. Today she leads a cross-disciplinary team of pediatric GI scientists, dietitians, and UX designers, all focused on one goal—giving families fast, gentle testing and clear, compassionate guidance to help their kids thrive.

Alexey V. Melnik, BSc MS

Chief Scientific Officer

“Cracking the microbiome’s chemistry turns hidden data into everyday choices that lift kids’ health. My passion is turning those hidden molecular signals into plain-language guidance, so families can trade uncertainty for simple steps that help their kids thrive.”

Alexey is an analytical-chemistry innovator who has spent a decade converting dense mass-spectrometry and sequencing data into clear biological stories. After pioneering multi-omics tools in top U.S. labs—from the Aksenov Group at UConn to Pieter Dorrestein’s metabolomics powerhouse at UC San Diego—he co-founded Arome Science to link microbial metabolites with human wellness. At KiteHealth, Alexey channels that systems-biology expertise into child-specific reference maps, ensuring our gut-brain tests pinpoint the molecules that matter and translate them into lifestyle guidance parents can actually use.

Alejandra Guillén, BSc Eng, MBA

Chief Operating Officer

“Testing means very little until it translates into information we understand to make everyday decisions in our lives—I learnt that working with HIV testing in Africa and that’s the gap we want to close for neurodiverse families."

Alejandra is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who has spent 20 years bringing connected-health ideas to life. At Roche Molecular Diagnostics she led global initiatives that made cutting-edge assays accessible in underserved regions, and at Medtronic Spain she created a digital health incubator for the development of disease management solutions. She has co-founded multiple digital-health ventures—including AWEAR, an AI-powered stress wearable—proving her knack for 0→1 execution. Now at KiteHealth she blends that molecular-testing rigor with startup agility, steering operations, product and go-to-market so our evidence-based gut-brain kits land in parents’ hands quickly and clearly.

Our Mission: To Empower Neurodiverse Families With Clear, Evidence-Based Gut-Brain Insights

Our Story

Our Story