General Open Letter to Philanthropists
July 30, 2023
Subject: Inquiry for Funding of Phase 2 i-Diagnostics Non-profit Project
Dear Philanthropists,
I am writing to you because you are known in the U.S. for your philanthropic actions of returning back to society. I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, immigrated to this country in 1994. I believe that I am more patriotic American than most of my U.S.-born fellows, because I have a basis for comparison. I received my training in the former USSR from four Nobel Prize winners: N. N. Semenov, P. L. Kapitza, A. D. Sakharov, V. L. Ginzburg, as well as academicians K. I. Zamaraev, A. E. Shilov, doctors I. Y. Sarkisov, E. M. Trukhan and dozens of other super-talented scientists. They generously trained me in several fields, which placed me into uniquely advantageous position in the area of molecular diagnostics, and super-resolution bioimaging, and enabled me with the unique set of skills and knowledge that I am not taking for granted. I feel fortunate and am willing to return back to society the favor that I received with my skills in science. My gurus had similar feelings in their blood and transferred them into me together with their knowledge and skills.
I am inspired by Dr. Albert Bruce Sabin, who made his invention of polio vaccine available for all. Similar to Dr. Sabin I am willing to make i-Diagnostics and TIRF Analitix instruments, my inventions, available to everyone. I pledge to return back to society – make my inventions in the area of precision medicine available for all, including all research groups on the globe. Together with i-Diagnostics and TIRF Analitix we supply to our R&D customers the entire range of tools and supplies for application development. I am giving back to society my knowledge, skills, and labor. But with our current limited funding my efforts reach only a limited number of groups. Your donations will help us to make i-Diagnostics and TIRF Analytix Open Source Platforms available to the broadest base of scientific and medical communities; in several years i-Diagnostics will be available to everyone.
We believe that we inquire about new type of philanthropic donations and U.S. Government investments that should be driven by patriotic, pro-social, highly ethical donations and investments that do not pursue commercial, for-profit purposes. The goal of our non-profit project is to prevent future epidemics and minimize the damage from existing diseases. Our team is uniquely positioned in the area and our way to give back to society is to create an open source platform for global infrastructure of precision medicine, home-use accurate diagnostics, single molecule biology, and rapid drug screening.
Life science is the area where technology meets humanity. Life science technologies offer tremendous opportunities to improve the quality of life. However, as a powerful tool it involves the risks of misuse. To amplify the former opportunities and to mitigate the risks of the latter, one needs an advanced diagnostics technology. On the other hand, the platform should be capable of providing insights into molecular mechanisms of diseases. i-Diagnostics platform meets all the requirements. 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. Besides, our TIRF technique combined with microscopy has become a method of choice for single molecule biology studies. We declined for-profit route for our project and pledge to make i-Diagnostics a genuine Open Source platform available to everyone. We believe that this project represents excellent opportunity for patriotic philanthropists, The U.S. Government, our fellow scientists, and us. We are committed and excited to create a global biological safety infrastructure based on intelligence of independent scientists, medical doctors, and other users. All aspects of the envisioned infrastructure require advanced diagnostics. We invented and prototyped such technology. Our research-grade TIRF products are in demand for single molecule biology studies. i-Diagnostics can revolutionize the entire field of healthcare, as well as create new areas of personalized prognostic and preventive medicine. Our team has excelled with Phase 1 of this project, which was funded by the U.S. government totaling $4.3M. We are fully ready to move to Phase 2 and request your donations to make i-Diagnostics an Open Source Platform in order to make it affordable for thousands of research groups worldwide. Please refer to www.i-diagnostics.net and contact us for details.
Briefly, our technology uses the phenomenon of Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF), which provides extremely thin layer of excitation light ~100 nm, thus removing the background interference, maximizing the sensitivity and minimizing false-positive and false-negative responses. We currently manufacture research-grade analytical TIRF instruments, capable of detecting single molecules. They are competing with Zeiss, Nikon, Leica, and Olympus. However, there is no competition and no analogy to our handheld i-Diagnostics device.
We envision that thousands of research groups worldwide will develop applications in their areas of expertise using the open source i-Diagnostics. Coordinated global network of users will create infrastructure preventing the emergence and spread of infections.
The following list of features places i-Diagnostics into uniquely advantageous position with respect to alternative technologies:
- Ultimate sensitivity – ability to detect early stages of the disease.
- Superior confidence – minimal rate of false-positive and false-negative responses.
- Fast results – providing test results within 5 minutes – simplifying the logistics.
- Minimal requirement to sample preparation allows for home-use.
- Mega-diagnostics: single TIRF microchip can analyze over 100 different targets at once and quantitatively.
- Simultaneous detection of DNA, RNA, protein, and metabolite biomarkers.
- Chemical-biological analyzer: single TIRF microchip enables detection of multiple chemical and biological agents
i-Diagnostics can detect virtually all diseases including COVID-19, other SARS, Ebola, Influenza, MERS, HIV, and Zika viruses, cancers, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases. Besides obvious clinical use, it is applicable for food and water safety, agricultural and forensic areas. Diagnostic panels can be broad, but tailored to a single medical issue, for example, breast or prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and longevity applications. Running molecular marker profile at home would make doctors’ time more productive and insurance more affordable.
With Phase 1 already being completed, TIRF Labs is looking to raise 2 million USD to start Phase 2 and 75 million to create global infrastructure.
We request your help to partially cover the cost of Phase 2 so that i-Diagnostics becomes an Open Source platform for all diagnostic needs. In Phase 2 we envision sharing our application development tools with the research community, upgrading the handheld i-Diagnostics and starting manufacturing. We will develop several applications in our lab. However, the main goal is to create global infrastructure to help with the development of a broad range of applications down to receiving FDA approvals. We envision to create an NC RTP-based center for i-Diagnostics, which will coordinate global efforts of preventing future pandemics and emerging precision medicine for all. We are delighted to invite you to become a part of this unique global opportunity, which can revolutionize the current state of medicine, improve the quality and reduce the cost of healthcare by billions.
Let’s change the future of healthcare together to be always a step ahead of any disease.
With Highest Regards,
Alexander Asanov, Ph.D.
CEO, TIRF Labs, Inc.
Research Triangle Park, NC
Info@tirf-labs.com
Encl: The project is outlined in the enclosed brochure and described at i-Diagnostics.net