I'm setting up a Nanotechnology based business in the medical and life science device sectors, from scratch and in a developing country with no nanotechnology infrastructure. I am a visionary... no, scrub that, I am clinically insane. We've raised money, moved to Cape Town, and am just about to start things up, now what the hell do we do... shit!
Friday, 16 October 2009
Nanowires
A nanowire is pretty much that, a tiny wire, wherein it's thickness is 10 to the minus 9 meters thick. Take home message, pretty damn small.
We use two basic methods of synthesizing our nanowires: top-down and bottom-up approach. In a top-down approach we etch (using an eBeam) the nanowires out of a piece of silicon. In our bottom-up approach the nanowires are synthesized using a VLS method wherein the nanowire is 'grown' by the combination of constituents ad-atoms.
Our sensors are fabricated in such a way so as to enable us to measure the conductance in the nanowire. We simply imobilize a capture molecule on top of the nanowire and when a target molecule (such as DNA) binds, it brings with it a charge. This build up of charge density at the nanowire surface causes a field effect, which we can measure. Array hundreds of these in a microfluidics chamber and front end it with some neat sample prep technology and hey presto, you've got yourself a super cool new diagnostic tool that can sit in your pocket and run all the assays you could hope for.
Bloody clever huh ;-)
If only it was a simple as it sounds above. The truth is that it has taken years of development to get to where we are now. But now we're here, with everything working... well, it feels BLOODY great!
I can barely believe it when I looked at the date for my last post, July 8th?? Where has time gone and why haven't I been posting? Ahh well what do I expect, it's a busy life now. However, a number of people have been kind enough to mention they have enjoyed my posts so now that I have come up for air following 3 months hard graft, I feel I can dedicate some time to providing y'all with some entertainment at my expense.
I'll aim to post a number of blogs over the next few days, describing some of my experiences as we develop this amazing Point of Care device. Since my last blog the project has really started to take shape, we have started to get real life data and all our contracts and partnerships have be signed. All planning and testing has been completed and we are now at the cusp of diving head first into the deep end of our development projects.
Today was the first day of the rest of my life, yes, I love clichés and no doubt you, the reader, will probably hate them soon ;-)
Our first two scientist employees came started work today. This would have been a super exciting and wonderful event, however, we still haven’t got a lab, or offices… bugger! We have been told by a number of Professors (at the University we are hoping to move into and whom are the decision makers) that we can take part of this wonderful laboratory facility, called the PRF. It is perfect, has a reception, offices, and lots of different ‘mini-labs’ that can accommodate all our different processes (Nanotech, electronics, microfluidics, sample prep, PCR, etc), so I am happy. The only problem is that it comes with a mother-load of University politics. Furthermore, as it is University owned, we need to seek approval from both Ethics and the commercial team, who will most likely want to ring fence some IP for themselves…. we will stand strong and prevent them exploiting us!
So anyway, fortunately for me and my two new employees, I am happy to report that I am occupying the office of a member of faculty (MK) who is championing our cause with the powers that be at Stellenbosch Uni. It’s not ideal of course, but I’ll take it for now as I wait for all the Red Tape and the rather protracted way in which decisions are made here, to swing our way. The main point is that I have a space wherein I can teach TF & YY the wonders of nanowires, lucky them!
Their first day with me was awesome… for me! I got to talk and talk and talk about science, MY science, to a captive audience. Credit must be given to the two ladies, either they were really into it, or gave a performance worthy of an Oscar. It is clear they are both very dynamic individuals, full of ambition and drive and they certainly want to make their mark on this world. I am determined to allow them this opportunity with Q-POC. After all Q-POC, which will enable high quality, laboratory standard testing in the field, will help the fight against HIV, TB and Malaria enormously in this country!
On day two YY & TF dutifully showed up at my faux-office, sat down and proclaimed that they had both gone home with fried brains… oop’s, information overload. So instead today I limited my rant to only a few hours and gave them some papers on Nanowires to read, absorb and formulate some questions for Wednesday (Note to self: read papers so you can answer questions). I then packed them off on their way as I wrote out the protocols for their next few months work – which is to perform a comprehensive survey of the research groups working in the diagnostics field for HIV, TB and Malaria. We need to understand the competition and see if there are some JV or licensing opportunities to help shorten our time to market (licensing in someone else’s biomarkers – preferably validated – will be much less of a headache than developing our own).
I find it important to provide very strict and tight instruction to scope of work, to scientists, or it becomes too easy to follow tangents. With this in mind, I have develop a template document with all the fields we require to develop an opinion on a group/companies biomarkers (Science, IP, etc, etc). Along with this I have written an SOP for this document and structured it around weekly update meetings. This way I have full control over the direction and yet the scientists still feel they have scope to express themselves within the bounds of SOPs…. more importantly, it helps me remember what the hell we’re doing!
End of day 2 – things are looking great. Our employees are smart, sharp and hungry, we’re on target to hit our milestones/deliverables…. time for beer! QMDx rule number 1 – work hard, play harder!
The weekend just gone was a weird one for me. I have been so excited about our first two South African employees starting on Monday (more of this later), the sun was bright and was really quite summery (which is odd as it’s winter here). I decided to go for a quick work-out before going to explore Century City, just outside of Cape Town. I just wanted clear my head so that I could plan what I was going to do with YM and TF more effectively.
I was driving along the road, on my way to the gym, and came to a set of traffic lights. Suddenly a white Corsa sped through my peripheral vision and past me. I can’t recall the details of what happened next, I guess I was in shock, but the car must have crashed into a motor cyclist. The scene was straight out of a horrific movie. I approached the car to find the driver in hysterics, she had gone into serious shock and couldn’t be brought out of it. I remember the young boy she hit, laying on the ground, unconscious & bleeding. The emergency services arrived quite quickly, but it was too late and he died at the scene.
Later in the weekend I heard there was another person on the bike, who also died instantly. I don’t remember seeing him at all, I guess I was also in shock. I am not looking forward to those memories coming back!
Whilst it is undoubtably sad for the woman driving the car (I really don’t think it was anyones fault, just one of those things), and of course for the poor chaps who were killed, when I think back to that scene and the fact that a number of us had blood on us, I think how useful our Q-POC device would have been. Rather than have to anxiously wait the few days for the HIV test results to return, we good samaritans could have received peace of mind in minutes. Just yet another reason to drive me to make this a reality!
Thankfully the police called to let me know neither of the victims had HIV.
Well hello people, welcome to the first post of my soon to be extremely famous (in my own head) blog. I have recently been reading Richard Branson’s novels and have been impressed with the way he is able to refer to the 30+ years of notebooks he’s used over the years to organize himself and his business interests. That won’t work for me as I don’t operate well with paper and pen, but I really wanted to document the next few years as I will be building a Biotech empire…. yes, I am either inspired or utterly delusional, so this will make for some good reading.
So who am I and why do you want to bother reading this? Well, I am just a normal chap with a big idea (or 15), a bunch of patents and licenses, funding (in the millions, Sterling) and a desire to do things differently. If you like Biotech, Diagnostics, Nanotechnology and watching crazy fools like me try to navigate through these complex fields with all the Bravado of a champion sportsman, because I KNOW I am going to change the world, then stick with me. If you are not into those fields, fear not, I travel the world, meet crazy people and love to drink, dance and party where and when I can. I work like a mule in the Atlas Mountains and party like a biotech-rock star.
Do you hate me already ;-)
My company is developing devices surrounding our core technology, which is a silicon nanowire biosensor. We are presently applying it in two fields, point of carediagnostics (think a cell phone sized device that can run diagnostic tests in minutes – no need to wait for your blood sample to be sent to a laboratory. Wouldn’t it have been great if they had one of our devices to track this Swine Flu… I digress) and DNA Sequencing (want your genome sequenced for under $1k, no problem, just give us 2 years to get there). If you want more info, just head to our website (www.quantumdx.com) or wait until I explain more in later posts.
I realize a lot of what we do is super technical and there will be a bunch of long words to get your head round. I will attempt to link all of these words to websites providing definitions and explanations. If you know all the words, concepts and theory, bloody well get in contact with me, we’re hiring (see Facebook or LinkedIn links to the right)!
I intend this blog to be fun, lighthearted and to provide an insight into what it takes to startup and (hopefully) make a success of a Biotechnology company, from a mad scientist’s perspective. To date my board, myself, EW, JW & PF, have successfully set up most business processes, secured funding from a South African government fund, incorporated a subsidiary in Cape Town to focus on making a Point Of Care device (Q-POC) and have started to get funding for our UK based subsidiary, focusing on making a DNA Sequencing device (Q-SEQ).
I am presently in Cape Town to set up the SA subsidiary (more of this later), PF is in USA dealing with the regulatory issues and keeping an eye on the market and EW & JW are in the UK. We have partners in Melbourne (who are developing our special microfluidics components), New Zealand, Singapore, India, Germany and Switzerland… and I have to visit them, a lot! As you can see, it’s pretty hectic and I am kept busy. However, wherever I go, I make sure I get out of the office and find a bar or two for some interesting adventures and fully intend to report them all here.
I am writing this post on Sunday, July 5th 2009, tomorrow my first two employees (excluding members of our board) start work and we still haven’t had the approval to move into our lab at Stellenbosch University. Ahh the entrepreneurial life… and so my adventure begins, enjoy!
Enjoying a glass of wine in my apartment when EW was in town to help
with the business aspects of our Cape Town based subsidiary.
QuantuMDx Group Limited is a dynamic and innovative devices company utilising our Q-Technology and expertise to move complex diagnostic and sequencing technologies into everyday use.
Our first two cost effective devices are Q-POC – a handheld device for rapid disease detection at the point of care (POC) and Q-SEQ a bench-top optics-free DNA sequencing system able to sequence an entire genome in under a day.
