How is NuTec different from other clinical tests?
NuTEC is envisioned as a single device diagnosing many diseases as opposed to many individual tests in the hospital each diagnosing a single disease.
How do NuTec signatures work differently from individual tests?
The two are not mutually exclusive. Signatures allow you to ask the open-ended and unbiased question: ‘Is there a problem?’ However, if you have a specific question such as ‘Do I have diabetes mellitus?’ a specific test for glucose levels would make more sense.
Does NuTec detect DNA, RNA, proteins or small molecules?
NuTec is unbiased and reacts with all 4 classes. The resulting spots on the NuTec are not DNA, RNA, proteins and small molecules but rather the colorimetric products of these chemical reactions.
How is the NuTec signature generated?
A mixture of molecules in a sample applied to the NuTec undergoes chemical reactions upon heating which then result in a visual pattern of dark and light spots. By design, each spot on the NuTec reacts differently with the sample molecules. Physicochemical diversity among the spots is important for NuTec to search through a large enough chemical space in the sample. This diversity is the basis for generating the spot pattern.
What is the NuTec signature?
The NuTec signature is analogous to a hash function. A hash function takes information of arbitrary length (e.g. a large image file) and generates an output signature with a drastically smaller length (e.g. a string of 32 characters). The NuTec is the chemical version of a hash function. Just like a hash function, NuTec takes dimensionally large chemical information in a sample and reduces it to a chemical hash of X defined spots. Hash signatures are a great way of telling if a file downloaded off the internet matches the original. In the same way, Entopsis will be matching your chemical hash signature to a database of pre-validated hashes.
Are there other current approaches using signatures and how is NuTec different?
What sets NuTec apart from other platforms is the chemical hash concept. Chemical hashing does several things. It transforms chemical information into colorimetric information which can be acquired by a scanner or phone camera. It lets NuTec survey a chemical space which is unimaginably complex. The resulting hash signature is compact and easily amenable to database storage and template matching.
Entopsis raises $800K seed round led by Krillion Ventures!
Last week was a big week for Entopsis with the raising of our seed round led by Krillion Ventures. A big Thank You to our intrepid investors for believing in our vision! We are now in a stronger position than ever to accelerate the development of specific assays based on the NuTec platform and our data analytics infrastructure. Contact us if you are a clinician or scientist and would like to explore a partnership with us to develop an assay!
Mark Twain on the German Language
If you are interested in how German works, Mark Twain’s attempt to rationalize grammatical patterns in German is an entertaining read! Thanks to DK for sending this.
Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, “Let
Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
United States legislation took a step into the future in 2011 by passing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The FSMA shifts the focus from a after-the-fact reactionary approach to a preventive approach. One might not expect it but the toll exacted by foodborne diseases is large. 1 in 6 people in the United States (that’s 48 million people) suffer from foodborne diseases each year. Thousands die and these deaths are needless. The shift to prevention is timely. What the FSMA does is to make food companies responsible for monitoring and preventing contamination.
Food companies will now need a
