February 4, 2023
Dear Dr. Milner,
In your letter “My Giving Pledge” you wrote: “I believe that progress comes quickest when individual leadership drives collaborative ventures.” I am asking you to donate to such a collaborative venture, non-profit i-Diagnostics project, which has the potential to shift the paradigm in medicine and longevity so we can be a step ahead of any disease.
I am Dr. Alexander Asanov, the inventor of i-Diagnostics (http://i-diagnostics.net), a platform technology for the precision medicine of the future. Being inspired by Dr. Albert Bruce Sabin, who made his invention of polio vaccine available for all, I am willing to make i-Diagnostics available to everyone. I received my training from four Nobel Prize winners (including your guru – Dr. Sakharov), elite super-talented teachers, and dozens of genius scientists; they enabled me with the unique set of skills and knowledge that I am not taking for granted. I pledge to return them back to society – make my inventions in the area of precision medicine available for all. Together with i-Diagnostics we supply to our R&D customers the entire range of tools for application development. I am giving back to society my knowledge, skills, and labor. But they reach only a limited number of groups. Your donations will help us to make i-Diagnostics an Open Source Platform available to the broadest base of scientific and medical communities; in several years i-Diagnostics will be available to everyone. To accelerate the progress, I am supplying the entire range of i-Diagnostics development tools and analytical TIRF instruments to scientists and medical doctors. Not only diagnostics itself, but the entire cycle of biomarkers discovery, elucidation of the mechanisms of diseases, and screening for cures is covered by the i-diagnostics platform. Several research groups have already made groundbreaking discoveries using our products.
I am asking for your support because of your interest in medicine, molecular biology, and genetics. Lifescience is certainly the focal point where technologies meet humanity. Its progress can give our kids the opportunity to live actively for 150-200 years. On the other hand, it carries the risks of misuse. TIRF techniques enable the former and minimize the risks of the latter. I am giving to society my knowledge, skills, labor, and i-Diagnostics.net project to create a better world for our kids. However, I am reaching only a small number of research groups because sophisticated development tools are costly. Your donations will help to make i-Diagnostics an Open Source Platform available to the broadest base of scientific and medical communities and result in precision diagnostics available to everyone.
There is an emotional account behind my request to you. I was born and raised in the former USSR, graduated from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology. My Ph.D. advisor was academician Semenov, Nobel Prize winner. I made my initial discoveries for i-Diagnostics at the Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Science, at Vorobyovy Gory. In 1994, a force-majeure circumstance forced me to emigrate. My new Motherland, the USA, generously rewarded me for my skills and knowledge. In competition with GE and other large firms I won $4.3M in US federal grants and developed not only i-Diagnostics, but a family of TIRF instruments and methods. I pioneered several groundbreaking methods, including TIRF microarrays, TIRF combined with electric field and dielectrophoretic control, published over 50 papers, presented >30 invited lectures. All these developments would not be possible without my Russian teachers: academicians Semenov, Zamaraev, Shilov, Goldansky, and my spiritual gurus academician Sakharov and Dr. Sarkisov. Looking back I understand that my developments would not be possible without my Russian teachers. I want to make my inventions available to everyone in Russia.
In 2007, I invented the TIRF microarray technology and now I see how my customers discover new drugs and repurpose old ones, such as ivermectin and fenofibrate, for prophylactics and treatment for COVID-19, study the mechanisms, and develop cures for diseases. I am delighted to share my products and technologies with scientific and medical communities. With your philanthropy our efforts could be amplified tremendously. Thousands of research groups worldwide will develop their diagnostic applications using our application development products and the open source platform, discover new biomarkers, and find new cures.
Unlike conventional tests that detect only one class of biomarkers, i-Diagnostics detects all 4 major classes simultaneously: DNA, RNA, proteins, and metabolites, and builds 4D images of the response, providing superior accuracy for personalized medicine. We are ready to move to Phase 2 and request your donations to make i-Diagnostics an Open Source Platform and create an infrastructure based on the intelligence of the global network of scientists and medical doctors to mitigate the risks of emergence and outbreaks of diseases. Technologically, it is already feasible. Please visit our website www.i-diagnostics.net for details and contact us via email i-diagnostics@tirf-labs.com or phone +1(919) 771-6863.
Donate to the i-Diagnostics project to change the future of medicine to be a step ahead of any disease. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Alexander Asanov, Ph.D., CEO, TIRF Labs