…. After the failure of our first business together, Elaine and I
decided that we wanted to build a business of substance, rather than provide a
service. This time the business was to be run and managed using our intuition,
expertise and experience and not from any theories plied by a plethora of
business schools or so called business experts. Above all the company had to be fun and
motivating to work for. This was to be our baby
and we were going to do it our way!
The big idea...
Ever since my time at Harvard, I had been playing around with the
idea of portable molecular diagnostic (MDx) and DNA Sequencing devices. I
remembered reading in the Crimson about a Harvard Professor who had been able
to detect the presence of DNA using tiny wires, or nanowires.
 |
SEM of a bottom up nanowire
traversing two electrodes. |
Detecting DNA using tiny silicon nanowires sounded like the coolest
thing to me, more so that it was happening in a laboratory one building over
from my lab. I remember reading as much
about them as possible and was honored to be at Harvard for the birth of such a
great technology (and no, I am not talking about the Human Genome or Facebook,
which also had its birth when I was there).
I delved into the literature and patents and ferociously read and
absorbed as much as I could about them. It seemed clear to me that they where
part of the puzzle I was constructing. Nanowire based biosensors can be
produced in a standard CMOS fab, in great numbers and at low cost. They
also operated label-free, without fluorescence, a big win as it meant that we didn’t need
to use expensive fluorescent reagents or large and expensive detectors.
Furthermore, they had been shown to have a ~10fM LOD and could be arrayed in
their thousands (i.e. each sample could have 1000’s of tests done on it
simultaneously). In short, it was the dream biosensor, multiplexed, cheap,
scalable, super sensitive and small (perfect for a handheld).
 |
| The impressive wall of patents at Nanosys |
As with most early stage companies in this space, securing your IP
is the first job. We spoke to the great folk at Harvard Tech Transfer (one of
the few university Tech Transfer offices that know what they are doing) and
they put us in touch with a company in Palo Alto, CA, who had licensed all of
Harvard’s nanowire technology. I
immediately flew out and pitched why they would want to exclusively
license the nanowire technology to us in our field of DNA detection and
sequencing. They agreed. Elaine followed up and negotiated a cracking deal
for us and we used that to secure some initial funding that paid for the
license.
A biosensor does not make a point of care (POC) molecular diagnostic
device however, so with our license and the initial funding from an angel
investor Julian (who has another role in Elaine’s life as private-life-husband.
We joke that I am her professional husband as over the years we have had to
spend a huge amount of time living together), we developed a coherent business
plan, set up a laboratory in my garage (buying cheap equipment from e-bay among
other vendors) and off we went.
 |
The view from the
Q-Apartment in Cape Town |
Elaine went out and did the VC/Angel trail and held down several
jobs to pay for the proof of principle data while I spent my days and nights
testing technologies, ideas and reagents in my garage to pull together some
initial proof of principle data that would support an argument for our vision
of providing a multiplex MDx device. We incorporated the company on 4th March
2008 and on Xmas Eve 2008, whilst sipping champagne, we collectively signed the
contracts on a multimillion pound investment deal from a state run investment
fund in Cape Town, South Africa, for a joint venture.
 |
| QuantuMDx's lab in Tygerberg, SA |
Part of the deal was that I would pack up, leave my family behind
and move to Cape Town to set up the R&D facility and Elaine would set up
the UK operations. So off we went and for 18 months it ran like a dream and we
were very successful in all of our research and business.
Unfortunately one of the problems with government funds is that they
can be taken away from you rather quickly and relatively easily. A
reorganization of the regional funds saw a consolidation of not just the
regional offices, but also of the projects they were willing to fund. We had
demonstrated that we were on target and under budget, that our science was
sound and technology was peer reviewed and viable, however they disputed the
time to product that we claimed and as such we fell outside of their new
criteria. It was a terrible day announcing the closure of the company and the
imminent redundancy of the most amazing South African R&D team. The
decision was hard to take at first, but in retrospect, that’s business and you
just have to get on with it.
 |
Elaine Warburton, entrepreneur
& business Rockstar! |
And get on with it we did. I got back in my garage and started
adding more data and wrote, with Elaine, some UK government grant applications.
Fortunately, after going many months without a salary we successfully won one
from i4i (part of the NIHR).
However, we still needed private investment to ensure we were a
going concern and could provide the company contribution (UK grants are rarely
100% grants and require companies to match funds – a ridiculous situation that
seems to favour larger companies). We walked the pavements of the city so many
times and it was always the same story, too early, too late, too expensive, too
inexperienced, etc, etc, a story I am sure most company owners will know well.
It was soul destroying and utterly frustrating.
We were struggling with our finances, Elaine’s property was
mortgaged to the hilt, mine was already in negative equity, all our savings had
gone, the car was gone and we estimated that we were 11 days from calling in
the liquidators, when we finally got our angel! Within a few days of
successfully pitching to an a philanthropist we received a substantial
investment hitting our account and we were back riding the rollercoaster! The
deal was actually ‘inked’ over an iphone Skype call while Elaine and Julian
were watching their youngest son score a 50 for County cricket. Rock n’ Roll!
 |
Sir John Burn and I at the
Centre for Life |
Upon getting the investment, our medical director (Professor Sir
John Burn) managed to get us some space at the International Centre for Life in
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and I packed the garage lab into my car, along with
some of my possessions and again left my family to pursue my dream. I was kindly invited to stay at Sir Johns and
once again built up the company from scratch.
We hired a few key positions, attracted more investment and grants
(over £12m to date) and drove the development of our technology. As of today we
have 40 staff (in 3 countries) working on our fully integrated bench top device
that is capable of taking a whole blood sample through lysis, extraction,
amplification and detection in under 15 minutes. Over the next 12 months we
will miniaturize and speed up our bench top device so that it is palm sized and
provides complex MDx analysis in under 10 minutes.
If nothing else, the above will tell you that we Quantumites (as we
call ourselves) are a determined bunch and despite the shocking state of UK
biosector funding, we don’t fail, nor will we fail in business or in our
science. This blog will describe my personal journey as I ride the QuantuMDx
rollercoaster. We are changing the world and saving millions of lives it really
is that big!
 |
| The Q-Team outside our office |
These
are the personal words and opinions of Jonathan O’Halloran and do not reflect the
opinion of QuantuMDx Group Limited.
