Convergence and Opportunity

Technological innovations and progress is achieved whenever a convergence of existing technologies in addition to new ones are fused together and engineered to create new inventions. All the technology to create quantitative devices that are accurate to the cellular level exists. Our partners pioneered bringing to market the first Quantum Dot quantitative devices using existing discoveries in genetics, nanotechnology and information science.

In our case, we started testing the first quantitative Quantum Dot test kit during the start of the pandemic in collaboration with medical doctors at San Jose Regional Hospital in California. We are embarking on a path to pursue further developments in this space and hope to bring disruptive changes to diagnostics and perhaps, even other fields of medicines affected by discoveries that we will find out along the way. Quantitative devices at the molecular level if fused with advances in data transfer and management can be as dramatic as the change that happened during the transition from analog to smart phones. Please consider:

In 2017 the authors: Cristian T Matea,1,* Teodora Mocan,1,2,* Flaviu Tabaran,1,3,* Teodora Pop,1,4,* Ofelia Mosteanu,1,4,* Cosmin Puia,1,5,* Cornel Iancu,1,5,* and Lucian Mocan1,5,* published a paper in the US National Library of Medicine, NIH, “Quantum dots (QDs), also known as nanoscale semiconductor crystals, are nanoparticles with unique optical and electronic properties such as bright and intensive fluorescence. Since most conventional organic label dyes do not offer the near-infrared (>650 nm) emission possibility, QDs, with their tunable optical properties, have gained a lot of interest. They possess characteristics such as good chemical and photo-stability, high quantum yield and size-tunable light emission. Different types of QDs can be excited with the same light wavelength, and their narrow emission bands can be detected simultaneously for multiple assays. There is an increasing interest in the development of nano-theranostics platforms for simultaneous sensing, imaging and therapy. QDs have great potential for such applications, with notable results already published in the fields of sensors, drug delivery and biomedical imaging. This review summarizes the latest developments available in literature regarding the use of QDs for medical applications.” The first biological imaging application was reported in 1998. In 2016, our Asian partners introduced to the market the first ever Quantum Dot devices in the medical field. This year, 2021, we collaborated on creating the first and only quantitative IgG kit in the world to be applied in detecting IgG levels post-vaccination.

The opportunity came when our group crossed paths but also because the pandemic ushered a consciousness in our society in general and among medical practitioners in particular about the need for more technologically advanced diagnostic kits and devices that can be deployed for existing, emerging pathogens as well as their variants and mutations. Our society need and is ready for diagnostics kits that are quantitative, portable, rapid and cost effective. The opportunity can be outlined as follows:

• We are co-developing a prototype that can be validated by credible US and Asian laboratories within months.
• The technology that will be discovered during this process can be expanded for other applications and diseases.