Value Proposition
Microfluidics can dramatically reduce the cost per test for most analytical test processes. Advanced Liquid Logic's droplet-based digital microfluidics - since the system is electronically and software controlled (no pumps or valves)- can also bring the test to the point of sample collection: to the research lab, to the clinic, to the field, to the factory. Digital microfluidics will be the technology that fully enables lab-on-a-chip at the point of sample collection at gets test results here, and now - not in some central lab three days from now.
While this platform technology could be applied to literally dozens of products in several multi-billion dollar markets including medical diagnostics, drug discovery, environmental monitoring, and more, Advanced Liquid Logic is focusing its development resources on two distinct but related markets - research instrumentation and medical diagnostics. The Company's first products will replace manual testing or robotic pipettors in drug discovery processes or other laboratory testing. Ideal customers would be academic or commercial researchers that want to miniaturize and/or automate a test process at a low cost of entry. For example, an academic researcher that wants to perform automated screens for protein crystallization using the Fluidigm Topaz system would pay about $100,000 for equipment and then supplies costs of $10 per well. We will be able to provide better data and make excellent margins at a price under $5,000 for equipment and supplies costs under $.05 per well. This will not only disrupt competitive offerings but will also allow many more researchers to crystallize their own proteins, which in turn could dramatically accelerate the drug discovery process. On the medical diagnostics side we will create robust handheld or bench top analyzers for infectious disease detection and other medical diagnostic applications. An ideal user would be a healthcare worker in a city health clinic or in the bush in Africa, where test results here and now are crucial: if the sample is sent to a central lab for results three days later, the healthcare worker may never see the patient again to begin treatment. The Company is currently in discussion with several potential commercial partners for implementation of the technology in various applications and has two contracts for prototype product development.
