One scientific team.
Two practices.
Mathematicians and computer scientists who build software for research teams and measure consensus for projects that impact communities. León, Mexico, since 2005.
56th Congress of the Mexican Mathematical Society, 2023
Science with common sense, applied to benefit people.
C3 was founded in 2005 by a team with a heavy academic background in mathematics and computer science. It has grown into two practices that share one method: model the problem properly, then build what the client can actually use.
C3 Idea works like a contract research organisation, joining R&D teams in academia and industry to fill their gaps. Since 2014 its focus has been bioinformatics and genomics.
C3 Consensus helps organisations earn the agreement of the communities and stakeholders their projects affect, with proprietary tools for finding opinion groups and mapping cause and effect.
Talk to the right practice
Office
Blvd. Adolfo López Mateos 1702, Piso 4 Int. F
Col. La Martinica, 37500 León, Guanajuato, México
C3 Idea
fernando.fontove@c3consensus.com
C3 Consensus
carlos@c3consensus.com
What we do
C3 Idea · Scientific software
Tailored software for scientific challenges: R&D capacity from mathematical model to deployed, optimised code.
Bioinformatics
Alignment, assembly and variant calling with BWA, GATK and IGV; microbiome analysis; a proprietary pipeline for discovering small peptides.
Scientific software
High-performance code sized to your throughput and hardware, with interfaces non-expert operators can run. AWS, Google Cloud, desktop, web.
Data analysis & modelling
Bayesian statistics, simulation, MCMC, topological data analysis and geo-referencing, centred on the decision you need to make.
C3 Consensus · Social licence
Paths toward acceptance for projects that impact communities and involve many stakeholders.
Social proofing
Community diagnosis, social initiatives, local liaisons and software for grievance management and stakeholder mapping.
Consensus workshop · GUIDE
Our software finds the close-knit opinion groups that disagree, then we facilitate the conversations that move them toward acceptance.
Root chaining workshop
Stakeholders’ factors linked by cause and effect into a directed graph, to see which ones matter most and plan the solution.
Consensus work aligned with Equator Principles · IFC Performance Standards · SENER (Mexico’s Ministry of Energy) · Environmental and social management systems (SGAS)
Track record
2005 C3 founded by mathematicians and computer scientists.
2014 C3 Idea focuses on bioinformatics and genomics.
2020 Residue Cluster Classes papers in Entropy 22(4):472 and IJMS 21(13):4787.
2020–23 Variant surveillance pipeline for Mexico’s SARS-CoV-2 genomic consortium, Cinvestav.
2023 Invited talk at the 56th Congress of the Mexican Mathematical Society.
2024 Virtual Museum of Mathematics opens with CCM-UNAM.
2025 Topological data analysis of antimicrobial resistance in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Co-authors of a patent on sequence alignment to graph references.
Clients and partners
Harvard Medical School
FEMSA
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Chanel Parfums & Beauté
UNAM
Cinvestav
Sociedad Matemática Mexicana
ArcBio
Selected work
Virtual Museum of Mathematics
C3 Idea · CCM-UNAM · 2024
With Dr. Nelly Selem of CCM-UNAM, C3 designed and developed applications and rooms for the museum, which opened on 7 August 2024.
SARS-CoV-2 variant surveillance pipeline
C3 Idea · Cinvestav · 2020–23
Analysis pipeline for Mexico’s genomic surveillance consortium, used to detect variants and follow the virus’s evolution.
Impact assessment around schools
C3 Consensus · A major industrial company in the region · 2025
Analysis of existing air-quality sensors around schools in San Pedro Garza García, part of a social and environmental impact assessment.
How we work
C3 Idea
By project
We assess the workload, agree deliverables and send a quote. Support for bugs continues for an agreed period. Best for clear, fixed objectives.
Retainer
Our scientists join your R&D team and goals change as the research does. Best for projects in research mode.
C3 Consensus
Diagnosis
We map the project’s communities and stakeholders and the issues that divide them.
Workshop
GUIDE and Root chaining sessions find the opinion groups and the causes that matter, and agree a path forward.
Follow-up
Liaisons, grievance management and reporting keep the agreement working as the project proceeds.
“Combining this platform and the facilitators’ expertise was critical to the success of this transformative project.”
Julien Garry, Procurement VP, Chanel Parfums & Beauté
“They really helped bridge the gap from our lab needs to a software solution.”
David Sinclair, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
“We brought on two of these guys and got ten different specialists.”
Thomas Watson Jr., Senior Manager, ArcBio
Tell us what your team is trying to solve.
Software for a lab or consensus for a project: start with a short description and we will take it from there.