I've seen a lot of projects like yours with the purest of goals never get past this stage because, simply, nobody makes the first move. It's almost like the attention gets in the way of publication. Either that, or there was never anything there, and it was just good PR from the beginning.
Your project is too damn important to let this happen. Please find or do whatever you have to do in order to publish what needs to be published. If that means taking a leap of faith, please, for the love of goodness, please do it.
I forgot to mention it, but there is also FDA requirement to how we disclose the protocol. Usually it is patented process, so we are looking to see how we should do it to not create issue for the FDA validation.
Other volunteer are working on this side, not me. I am a simple biochemist, those things are two complicated for me.
It is a risk, I agree. I can assure you that there is work done in the lab, and that we plan to publish it, one way or another.
I personally think that bioRxiv can be perfect to do a fast publication.
Your project is too damn important to let this happen. Please find or do whatever you have to do in order to publish what needs to be published. If that means taking a leap of faith, please, for the love of goodness, please do it.