一月份去参加了JP摩根健康医疗大会以后有许多大大小小的公司和我们开展了战略合作，有的是合作开发产品，有的借用我们的技术平台开发他们自己的产品，有的是谈投资。昨天又和一个国际大公司（总部在美国，但是感染病分子诊断部门在法国）谈合作，下面是我和他们电话会议后的一个跟踪email。这是我的一个习惯，一方面留一个记录，另一方面希望加深一下对方的印象，也有机会强调一下觉得没有谈透的地方。

这封信强调了我们公司和其它公司不同之处：我们有独特的多重PCR扩增技术；有全自动全封闭的技术平台；还有一个开放的商业模式。前两者使得第三条成为可能。

我把这封信原样公布在博客里，我觉得对许多创业者有帮助：

Dear XX,

Very nice talking to you yesterday.

Per our discussion, I am including more information on iCubate.

At the end of this page on our website, I included some publications describing the multiplex assays that I have developed previously, most of these assays were using Luminex platform for detection and using tem-PCR. We are now using arm-PCR (which is 100 times more sensitive, and require shorter time) and iCubate for detection.

Here is a linkto download a book chapter I contributed that discussing current multiplex PCR technologies  (you may need to use a public WiFi to download, some companies has firewall blocking access to dropbox).

This is another link to a recent publication that described our primer design software, the polymerase preference index (PPI), we used NGS to study polymerase bias towards primers and also developed a software to use PPI helping people design primers. The software, called iC-Architect, is also online and it is free to developers.

If we compare biotech to IT, you will find that we also have basic programing language, operation systems, hardware, and "software", and comparable business models:



What make us different from other companies (BioFire, etc) is that, even though we are using the same programing language (PCR), we have a much more robust operation system (arm-PCR, PPI), and we were able to incorporate this operation system with a high performance hardware platform (random access, contamination free, small footprint, etc) . This integrated technology allow us to develop better multiplex assays. And, not only we can develop assays, we also open the platform up to others. Instead of one developer, we may eventually have millions of developers design, developing, and marketing "Apps" on this platform.

There are several key ingredients that make the open business model work: (1) The free and easy to use assay design software; (2) The universal cassette (user just add assay specific primers and probes, all other common reagents and the universal array already installed), with options to adjust specificity and sensitivity; (3) The cassette specific barcode linking assay developer, user and market info to the hardware. The barcode is not only a technical tool to tell the machine how to run the assay and how to report the results, it is also a QC tool to  track the sample all the time, it is even a marketing tool, that allow all participants (iCubate, assay developer, distributor, end user, consumer) distribute money in a transparent way.

Roche's qPCR, Luminex color coded beads restrict them from becoming an open business model, because if they opened up the technology (without taking licensing fee up front),  it is very difficult for them to capture the financial benefit. We have the cassette and the barcode!

To sum up, we are not just a company with a box, that would be equivalent to an "APPLE I" machine which is very difficult to program and come up with an App. Instead, we are providing an operation system, a beautifully designed (yes, we put a lot of thinking into the design of the instrument) machine, a seres of killer Apps, and a scalable business model.

I would love to receive you in Huntsville in the near future.

Best regards,

Jian

Jian Han, MD., Ph.D.
President and CSO,
iCubate, Inc.