Hi, Walker here, one of the PreDxion co-founders. Up until recently we've been focused on developing our technogy as a point of care biosensor for us in patients experiencing dysfunctional immune responses (e.g., sepsis, ARDS, and the immune responses induced by certain cancer immumotherapies).
The technical implementation of a viral detection assay is much simiplier to implement than our quantitative, multiplexed small MW biomarker sensors... But there are certainly many other hurdles that remain as you point out as well as the additional biological uncertainty that remind around SARS-CoV-2 it's infectious course as well as our bodies subsequent immune responses.
There are certainly many hurdles left to be tackled but that's exactly what we're working towards.
It’s critical to not underestimate the non-technical steps here, in terms of how do you deploy at scale, convince venues to install, deal with throughput rates, tie results to individuals, etc. All solvable, but it’s important to think about those sooner rather than later.
I have some experience on the security side here and how to deploy technologies like this at scale... happy to help (my email is in bio).
Yup, lets look at the actual and physical supply chain of “at scale” to be tackled to succeed.
And i am wishing them success, and my brother is the director of the VA for the entire state of Alaska, an Airforce Colonel (commander, tenth medical wing) and ive personally built/designed/commissioned 10+ hospitals (el camino, sf general, sequoia, nome, and more)
((All on the tech implementation and design side))
Are TRLs usually used outside of government R&D related things? If they got an SBIR I guess they'd be familiar with the technology, but I'm only familiar with it because of DoD funding applications and stuff, it's not terminology I've seen used in the private sector too much. Maybe it is, I'm curious to know if that's the case. I've usually only heard stages of tech development discussed in terms of preclinical, clinical stage, and other regulatory frameworks rather than tech readiness level necessarily.
I’ve seen TRLs used in tech transfer offices and engineering departments in academia; NIH and NSF (usually associated with SBIR programs) as well as the DoE; in medical device and pharma manufacturing; and in life science VC groups. In private companies and VCs I’ve heard it used most in management and BD contexts. I think TRLs can provide a useful second axis to the more common clinical or regulatory development staging.
The technical implementation of a viral detection assay is much simiplier to implement than our quantitative, multiplexed small MW biomarker sensors... But there are certainly many other hurdles that remain as you point out as well as the additional biological uncertainty that remind around SARS-CoV-2 it's infectious course as well as our bodies subsequent immune responses.
There are certainly many hurdles left to be tackled but that's exactly what we're working towards.