Designing the Next Leap in HealthTech

Over 400M people worldwide are affected by various infectious-ailments annually. The COVID-19 pandemic is such an infectious-disease-emergency, affecting over 7.9M people & causing over 430K deaths. Our microfluidic-device design-software can play a crucial role in rapid near-term response to mitigate such disease-outbreaks, & in enhancing long-term access to primary-healthcare, by enabling development of robust next-generation devices for (1) pathogen-detection, to aid in decreasing infection-spread, and (2) therapeutic-drug synthesis, to aid disease-treatment.

Biomedical engineers often struggle to efficiently & accurately design such microfluidic medical-devices that safely function within desired performance specifications. Our stochastic-finite-element-analysis simulation-software enables them to rapidly develop (1) high-performance point-of-care diagnostic tools, with improved detection sensitivity & specificity, for ascertaining infected patients, and (2) high-density drug-discovery platforms, with enhanced reconstitution of complex cellular interactions, for synthesizing therapeutic drugs. Such devices offer healthcare-sector & pharmaceutical-industry improved solutions to affordably & effectively control spread of infections, thereby ensuring global health security.

Infectious diseases account for over 15M deaths each year worldwide, and almost 30% of all disability-adjusted-life-years (DALYs, i.e. number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death). For a core set of infectious diseases, the disease burden is estimated at over 325M DALYs per year. During such disease-outbreaks, testing numerous patients puts a heavy burden on healthcare-sector, while infections continue to rise exponentially in absence of therapeutic-drugs. In these scenarios, advanced microfluidics technology can be used to develop (1) affordable diagnostic-tools, and (2) effective drug-discovery platforms.  

Development of such medical-devices is extremely complex, needing expertise in multiple disciplines (e.g. materials, biology, engineering), and understanding interplay between variables that influence operating-performance requires computational assistance. The task is challenging, especially when current simulation-software for engineering-evaluation of any new design consider fixed values for operating-parameters (e.g. heat-flux, thermal-conductivity). If the prospective design is adopted, any variation in these values can cause fluctuations in operating-performance (e.g. detection-sensitivity, oxygen-transfer-efficiency), leading to failure of the device.

There is a need for development of innovative engineering-software that can be utilized for stochastic-modeling (i.e. accounting for uncertainty and unpredictability in actual-use environment), design-simulations, sensitivity-analysis and rapid development of novel microfluidic-medical-devices that operate reliably in practical scenarios.

Our innovative software enables biomedical engineers to develop next-generation diagnostic tools & drug-discovery platforms that operate reliably in practical scenarios and offer rapid solutions for affordable diagnosis and effective treatment. Specifically, the technology employs proprietary stochastic-algorithms & advanced numerical-schemes, combined with artificial-intelligence (AI) techniques, to conduct design-simulations involving uncertainty quantification & propagation (UQP), model-sensitivity-analysis (MSA) as well as finite-element-analysis (FEA).

The novel simulation outcomes provide insights into (1) fluctuation in device operating-performance due to variation in operating-parameter values, and (2) relative effects of uncertainty in respective operating-parameters on device performance, thereby leading to an increased understanding of relationships between operating-parameters and performance.

Thus, the software aids efficient & accurate engineering-evaluation of progressively complex microfluidic medical-devices, which optimizes resources utilized during the design-phase to raise productivity, and enables design-improvements to (1) elevate the detection sensitivity & specificity in case of diagnostic tools, and (2) enhance the reconstitution of complex cellular interactions in case of drug-discovery platforms.

Relative to conventional platforms, such robust microfluidic medical-devices are better in terms of affordability (1000 times cheaper), portability (500 times smaller), assay screening-rate (1000 times faster), reagent use (1000 times lower), and thus, can positively impact the population at a large-scale, particularly in low-resource settings.

Microfluidics technology can play a significant role in slowing the spread of a disease-outbreak, as (1) affordable point-of-care diagnostic tools can aid the healthcare-sector to focus on treating infected patients, and (2) effective drug-discovery platforms can aid the pharmaceutical-industry to focus on delivering curative drugs. 

In this regard, our advanced software enables biomedical engineers to conduct efficient & accurate design-simulations & engineering-evaluation of progressively complex microfluidic medical-devices, to enable the development of robust next-generation diagnostic tools & drug-discovery platforms. 

Through participation in NSF Innovation-Corps Program, we have actively engaged in evaluating commercial value of the technology, establishing its social impact, and validating product-market fit.

Our plan over the next year is to release an Academic edition of the software to enable development of affordable diagnostic tools for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic & serving >1M people across US. In the subsequent year, we plan to release Government & Commercial editions of the software, for development of microfluidic technology for mitigating various infectious diseases & reaching >10M people across US & India. By year 5, we plan to adapt the technology for other relevant microfluidic technology applications, such as drug-delivery, food-safety, & air-quality-control, to positively impact the lives of >100M people worldwide.

MIT Solve is seeking technological innovations to slow the spread of a disease-outbreak such as Covid-19. Our software relies on novel stochastic-algorithms, numerical-schemes & artificial-intelligence techniques, and enables biomedical engineers in healthcare-sector & pharmaceutical-industry to design & develop reliable next-generation microfluidic medical-devices that have the potential to (1) perform accurate diagnosis, to aid in decreasing infection-spread, and (2) accelerate effective drug-discovery, to aid disease-treatment.

These affordable point-of-care diagnostic tools & effective drug-discovery platforms offer improved solutions for rapid near-term response to mitigate disease-outbreaks, & for enhancing long-term access to primary healthcare, to ensure global health security, particularly in low-resource settings.

Our software employs innovative stochastic-algorithms & advanced numerical-schemes, combined with artificial-intelligence techniques, to perform computationally efficient, high-fidelity simulations involving stochastic finite-element-analysis (SFEA). This enables rapid development of reliable point-of-care diagnostic tools, and effective drug-discovery platforms that safely operate within desired specifications. From a diagnosis perspective, such desirable diagnostic tools offer (1) quick turnaround, (2) clinically-relevant detection-limit, and (3) low-cost. From a treatment perspective, such effective drug-discovery platforms offer (1) rapid screening, (2) high-throughput, and (3) affordability.

Our technological solution achieves this through multiple innovative elements:

(1) Scientific: high-fidelity algorithms efficiently account for the influence of randomness in operating-parameters to accurately represent & assess desired operating-performance, and ascertain associated design-improvements.

(2) Technical: innovative framework adapts the numerical-techniques for engineering-analysis, to be used by biomedical engineers for accurately predicting operating-performance fluctuations in progressively complex microfluidic medical-device designs in presence of uncertainties.

(3) Commercial: the technology is a substantial step-up from the design approach conventionally employed that is computationally expensive & prohibitive. Transition of the software to healthcare sector & pharmaceutical industry would optimize computational resources utilized during design-process to improve productivity, and lead to more robust, optimal designs to ensure that increasingly complex microfluidic medical-devices maintain functional integrity.

(4) Social: use of microfluidic medical-devices offers a promising way to rapidly & affordably control the spread of infection and mitigate emerging disease-outbreaks, as compared to conventional approaches.     

In addition to above, the software can also be adapted for other microfluidic technology applications such as drug-delivery, micro-fiber synthesis, chemical-sensing, veterinary-diagnostics, food-safety & air-quality-control etc.

The software is comprised of (1) a scientific-computation-engine for conducting stochastic engineering-analysis, (2) a rendering application-programming-interface for displaying the geometry, and (3) a graphic-user-interface for visually-interactive software-use. It helps biomedical engineers in rapid design of microfluidic medical-devices which are extremely critical to slowing the spread of infection during pandemics.

Relative to conventional platforms, such microfluidic medical-devices are better in terms of affordability (1000 times cheaper), portability (500 times smaller), assay screening-rate (1000 times faster), reagent use (1000 times lower), and thus, can positively impact the population at a large-scale, particularly in low-resource settings.

Specifically, the core technology incorporates:

(1) Scientific techniques, which include efficient stochastic-algorithms & advanced numerical-schemes for executing effective high-fidelity SFEA. These are significantly (approximately three orders of magnitude) more efficient than conventional methodologies & accommodate uncertainty in a variety of operating-parameters.

(2) Technical methodologies, which include multi-disciplinary modeling approaches & state-of-the-art artificial-intelligence techniques for engineering analysis & design investigations appropriate for designing microfluidic medical-devices. These align the simulation outcomes for design optimization, apply relevant metrics for assessing operating-performance robustness, & enable fabrication of next-generation diagnostic tools & drug-discovery platforms.

(3) Technological features, which include a modular framework to accommodate deployment strategies, a robust high-performance computing architecture, & advanced graphic-user-interface, for promoting the transition of software to industry.

Thus, the technology is a novel addition to the simulation-software market, sharply differentiated from existing frameworks, technologically & in terms of value propositions, as predictive stochastic analysis of microfluidic medical-devices would improve operating performance, manage design-failure risk & enhance productivity.

Microfluidics technology offers healthcare-sector & pharmaceutical-industry improved solutions for accurate detection & rapid response [1] and can affordably control spread of infections to mitigate emerging disease-outbreaks. Further, stochastic-simulations applied for design of microfluidic medical-devices [2] can result in rapid development of (1) high-performance diagnostic tools with improved detection sensitivity & specificity for ascertaining infected patients, and (2) high-density drug-discovery platforms with enhanced reconstitution of complex cellular interactions for synthesizing therapeutic drugs.

The baseline methodology, formulated during graduate-studies, was originally supported by Army Research Office for dynamics-analysis of vehicles operating in uncertain terrains. It has been demonstrated to be computationally more efficient than conventional methods, and is a substantial step-up from the approach currently employed in industry. The proof-of-principle, published in academic-journals & presented at technical-conferences, has been cited by researchers worldwide, thus validating the approach’s scientific value [3]. The corresponding proof-of-concept, demonstrated in industry-symposia & trade-shows, has been deployed in the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) sponsored Autonomous Navigation Virtual Environment Laboratory (ANVEL) simulator, which has been widely adopted by researchers, industry professionals, and government agencies, thus validating the approach’s commercial value & its potential application for other industrial-design applications [4].

Through participation in NSF Innovation-Corps Program, we have also actively engaged in evaluating value propositions of the technology. The overwhelming response during interactions with industry representatives, and ‘letters of support’ from collaborating firms & prospective industry partners has further established the software’s potential for significant commercial & social impact.

References:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

[3] https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/...

[4] https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/...

Our software can be used by scientists & researchers for novel engineering-evaluation of microfluidic medical-device designs to help develop better diagnostic tools & drug-discovery platforms faster. It utilizes SFEA for quantifying & predicting operating-performance fluctuations, so that devices perform as desired even in presence of uncertainty. These microfluidic medical-devices can then enable healthcare sector & pharmaceutical industry to better tackle spread of emerging epidemics.

Activities: Our primary activities would involve deployment of an engineering-software for conducting effective stochastic design-simulations, necessary for development of next-generation microfluidic medical-devices. As noted in [1], “microfluidic system design requires expertise in materials, chemistry, biology, and engineering, and understanding the complex interplay between variables that influence and limit system performance is difficult without computational assistance.”

Outputs: The software-use enables design of next-generation microfluidics technologies. It results in development of better diagnostic tools. As noted in [2], “the integration of microfluidics with advanced biosensor technologies is likely to result in improved point-of-care diagnostics.” Similarly, it results in development of better drug-discovery platforms. As noted in [3], “Microfluidic technologies’ ability to miniaturize assays and increase experimental throughput have generated significant interest in the drug discovery and development domain.”

Outcomes: Microfluidic diagnostic tools offer rapid & affordable pathogen detection to limit spread of infections. As noted in [4], “The rapid diagnosis of pathogens is crucial in the early stages of treatment of diseases where the choice of the correct drug can be critical. ... The advantages of the novel (microfluidic) methods compared to the conventional techniques comprise more rapid diagnosis, lower consumption of patient sample and valuable reagents, easy application, and high reproducibility in the detection of pathogens.” Similarly, microfluidic drug-discovery platforms can aid in rapid & effective therapeutic-drug synthesis to effectively treat the disease. As noted in [5], “Miniaturization can expand the capability of existing bioassays, separation technologies and chemical synthesis techniques. Although a reduction in size to the micrometer scale will usually not change the nature of molecular reactions, laws of scale for surface per volume, molecular diffusion and heat transport enable dramatic increases in throughput.”

References:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

We are a nascent B2B2C venture, focused on leveraging our innovations in scientific computing, and expertise in technical analysis, to offer novel engineering-software solutions. The proof-of-concept of our stochastic-simulation framework has previously been deployed in the ERDC sponsored ANVEL simulator, in collaboration with Quantum Signal (now a subsidiary of Ford Autonomous Vehicles). The simulator, offered in three editions (Government, Commercial, Academic), has been widely adopted by government agencies, industry professionals, & academic researchers, thus validating the approach’s commercial value & its potential application for other industrial-design applications.

Currently, we are in the prototype-stage of adapting our simulation technology for design of progressively-complex microfluidic medical-devices, which would enable biomedical engineers in healthcare sector & pharmaceutical industry to develop next-generation diagnostic tools & drug-discovery platforms. Through participation in NSF Innovation-Corps Program, we are actively engaged with industry, as we work on developing the stochastic-simulation software technology, delivering ancillary software services, & testing business models.

Our goal over the next year is to implement & release an Academic edition of the software to enable researchers to develop diagnostic tools for tackling Covid-19 pandemic & serving >1M people across US. Our focus in the subsequent year would be to release Government & Commercial editions of the software, enabling development of microfluidic medical-devices for mitigating various infectious diseases, and reaching >10M people across US & India. By year 5, we plan to employ the technology for other relevant microfluidic technology applications, such as drug-delivery, food-safety, & air-quality-control, positively impacting the lives of >100M people worldwide.

1 year goals: 

Technological: advanced development of our stochastic-simulation technology to increase effectiveness of diagnostic-tools & drug-discovery platforms, designed for healthcare sector & pharmaceutical industry. 

Commercial: establish partnerships with academic researchers in US & engage industry through NSF Innovation-Corps Program to enable design of next-generation microfluidic medical-devices.

Social: release an Academic edition of the software to enable researchers to develop diagnostic tools for tackling Covid-19 pandemic & serving >1M people across US.

2 year goals:

Technological: position the SFEA technology as a benchmark for design simulations of progressively-complex microfluidic medical-devices.

Commercial: establish partnerships with engineering consultants in US & India to ensure that technology becomes an integral part of the microfluidic medical-device simulation software market with licensed users, achieving >5% of US market share.

Social: release Government & Commercial editions of the software, enabling the development of microfluidic technology for mitigating various infectious diseases, and reaching >10M people across US & India.

5 year goals:

Technological: (1) adapt the simulation platform for other relevant microfluidic technology applications such as drug-delivery, food-safety & air-quality-control, and (2) position the SFEA technology as a benchmark for design simulations of broader microfluidics devices.

Commercial: establish partnerships with industry firms to consolidate the market position in US, and ensure that the software becomes part of the standard microfluidic medical-device design simulation process, achieving >10% of the global market share.

Social: employ the technology for other relevant microfluidic technology applications, such as drug-delivery, food-safety, & air-quality-control, positively impacting the lives of >100M people worldwide each year.

1 year barriers:

The goal is to release an Academic software edition for development of diagnostic-tools. Potential barriers include:

Technological: (1) engineering-relevance (application of stochastic analysis to product design), (2) industry-relevance (influence of operating-parameter uncertainty on performance), and (2) computational-overheads associated with stochastic-simulation framework (computing time & memory-resource utilization).

Commercial: understanding industry operations, gaining access to customers, and developing industry relationships & collaborations.

Financial: funding for R&D activities to address the aforementioned technological & commercial barriers.

2 year barriers:

The goal is to release Government & Commercial software editions for development of a variety of microfluidic medical-devices. Potential barriers include:

Technological: market-transition of the software (ease of understanding technical aspects & using stochastic simulations).

Commercial: gaining traction in industry, marketing for scale-up to enable market-transition of technology & sales for industry-adoption of software.

Financial: funding for marketing & sales activities to address the aforementioned technological & commercial barriers.

5 year barriers:

The goal is also to employ the technology for other relevant microfluidic technology applications, such as drug-delivery, food-safety, & air-quality-control. Potential barriers include:

Technological: (1) engineering-relevance (application of stochastic analysis to product design), (2) industry-relevance (influence of operating-parameter uncertainty on performance), and (3) market-transition of the software (ease of understanding technical aspects & using stochastic simulations).

Commercial: (1) product & business development for diversifying & scaling-up operations, to enable the transition of technology to other industries & sectors; (2) marketing & sales for expansion to new markets, and (3) other companies offering a competing service within the health-security space.

Our team members have been associated with NSF Innovation-Corps & USAID HESN Programs, and plan to address the potential barriers by leveraging approaches developed by NSF, MIT CITE & D-Lab.

1 year activities:

Technological: (1) scientific research for enhancing efficiency & fidelity of algorithms to improve productivity, (2) software development for pertinent engineering-analysis (thermal, structural FEA) & industry-relevant commercial applications (stochastic modeling, thermal management) to improve designs & operating-performance.

Commercial: attend industry events to ascertain product-market fit, stakeholders & customer profiles, software adoption process & business models in industry, and demonstrate technology for potential partners.

Financial: raise funding for research & commercialization activities through grants and release Academic software edition.

2 years activities:

Technological: implement features for enhancing software deployment (on-cloud, on-premise) & software flexibility (number/type of uncertain parameters).

Commercial: attend relevant events (eg Planetary Health Annual Meeting, World Health Summit) to connect with potential partners, and evaluate business approach.

Financial: generate revenue through software licensing & ancillary service contracts, and release Government & Commercial software editions.

5 year activities:

Technical: (1) assess expansion to other relevant microfluidic technology commercial applications, gain understanding of customer needs & technology deployment across industry segments, and validate value propositions, (2) develop technology demonstrations for potential partners.

Commercial: (1) focus on strengthening & growing the team (for product-development, business-strategy, marketing & sales, software-process evaluation), (2) attend industry events to connect with potential collaborators, and offer trial access to ‘early adopters’ (3) make technological improvements to software & strengthen industry collaborations to gain competitive advantage.

Team Members & Roles:

Technology Engineering, Commercialization Execution: Gaurav completed PhD from MIT in mechanical engineering, majoring in energy-science & minoring in social-entrepreneurship. He has engaged in entrepreneurial activities through MIT, USAID & NSF Programs.

Product Development, Industry Initiatives: Suhrid completed PhD from MIT in mechanical engineering, majoring in data-science & minoring in energy-science. He is an Advisory Board Member of TeleSense, an entrepreneurial venture using IoT technology for food safety.

Business Strategy: Lawrence serves as the Managing-Director of Technology Associates & Alliances, CEO of Energy Harvesters, and was the Chairman of Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network & Founder-Chairman of EntreTech Forum.

Background & Experience

Our mission is to leverage our breakthrough innovations in scientific computing, and our expertise in technical analysis to develop & offer novel engineering-software solutions. Our baseline stochastic-simulation methodology, formulated during graduate-studies, has been published in academic-journals, demonstrated at trade-shows, and deployed in a commercial desktop-simulator, which has been widely adopted by researchers, industry professionals, and government agencies. Our related work involving modeling & simulation of dynamic-systems has also been presented at technical-conferences & industry-symposia, published in peer-reviewed international journals, and cited by scientists & industry professionals worldwide. We have significant experience in technology development & commercialization, and have also been selected to participate in national-level NSF Innovation-Corps Program. Our team members have also been associated with multiple social entrepreneurship activities, through MIT IDEAS Global Challenge, MIT CITE, USAID HESN, and plan to leverage our experience to deliver this solution and achieve our commercial & social-impact goals.

Partners & Advisors

The proposed technology has received ‘expressions of interest’ from industry through MIT Translational Fellows Program, MIT Venture Mentoring Service Program, & regional-level NSF Innovation-Corps Program, and a ‘letter of support’ from CyberOptics, a global micro-electronics firm. We have also engaged the IT Head of a global reinsurance company as a ‘Software Process Advisor’, an MIT mechanical engineering Professor as a ‘Technical Research Advisor’, and the CEO of CyberOptics & Board Member of Keytronics Corporation as an ‘Industry Advisor’. Our previous collaborators include Quantum Signal, now subsidiary of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, during the development of ERDC sponsored ANVEL simulator.

We currently have academic, government & commercial partnerships in place, aimed at:

(1) Customer Discovery: We are a Cohort Member in NSF Innovation-Corps National Pilot Teams Program, which uses experiential learning of customer & industry discovery, coupled with first-hand investigation of industrial processes, to quickly assess the translational potential of inventions. Through participation in the program, we plan to engage the industry as we work on developing the stochastic-simulation software technology, delivering ancillary software services, & testing business models. In addition, based on industry connections formed through participation in the program, we plan to establish partnerships with engineering consultants, focusing on collaborative value-added-reselling activities, & with industry firms, focusing on licensing agreements.

(2) Product Enhancement: We are in the process of applying for NSF & NIH grants and have gone through the initial screening process. Through these partnerships, we would be able to acquire initial funds for tackling some of the technological R&D barriers, and achieving our commercial impact goals.

(3) Industry Transition: With continued assistance from the MIT Venture Mentoring Service Program, which offers mentorship by senior industry experts to early-stage ventures, we plan to focus on business operations and commercial adoption of the technology in industry.

(4) Technology Commercialization: Through our involvement in the regional-level NSF Innovation-Corps Program, we have received a ‘letter of support’ from CyberOptics, a global microelectronics firm, & preliminary partnership discussions are underway. Our technology has also received ‘expressions of interest’ from engineering consulting groups & industry firms as well, for potential collaborative activities.

We are a B2B2C venture offering advanced engineering-software & ancillary services for industrial product-design applications. As a 'market intermediary', our stochastic-simulation software can be utilized by biomedical-engineers for rapid development of next-generation microfluidic medical-devices that demonstrate improved performance & operate reliably.

Our target market segments include (1) healthcare-sector, which utilizes diagnostic tools to detect infection, and (2) pharmaceutical-industry, which employs drug-discovery platforms to synthesize therapeutic-drugs. With growing demand for such devices, global microfluidics market is expected to reach $44B by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 23%, with North America accounting for nearly 40% of market. The molecular-diagnostics market is expected to be valued at $7B by 2025.

Typical customer-profiles comprise of (1) academic-institutions & engineering-consulting firms that license standardized software for technical-analysis, (2) industry R&D departments that require customized software for in-house analysis, (3) design-software development companies that incorporate the technology in their software-suite for industry applications. For access to these customers, we will adopt marketing channels such as participating in industry events, presenting at technology forums, & offering trial licenses to 'early adopters'. Our technology is particularly attractive, as predictive stochastic-analysis of microfluidic medical-devices would improve operating-performance, manage design-failure risk & enhance productivity.

For revenue generation, we will incorporate sales strategies including personal/enterprise licensing, on-premise/on-cloud simulation software & services, & collaborative value-added-reselling. By releasing Academic, Government, & Commercial editions of software, and offering technical consulting & ancillary services, we aim to employ Software-as-a-Service business model to ensure sustained commercial & social-impact, and benefit >100M people in 5 years.

Factors driving growth of microfluidic medical-device design-software market include, focus on minimizing product-development time, increasing medical-device complexity, and wide-ranging applications. With rising demand for such devices, microfluidic point-of-need testing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% & reach $10B by 2025. The microfluidic organs-on-chip market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28% & reach $134M by 2024.

For financial sustainability, we plan to employ Software-as-a-Service business model for licensed simulation software and supporting ancillary services, targeting healthcare-sector & pharmaceutical-industry. Costs related to software include technical research, software development, and marketing, while revenue streams cover on-premise/on-cloud software, personal/enterprise licensing, custom-software sales, and collaborative value-added-reselling. Costs related to ancillary services include technical support and high-performance-computing resources, while revenue streams cover on-cloud analysis and consulting services. Over next year, in addition to raising R&D funds through grants, we will engage industry through NSF Innovation-Corps Program, and collaborate with academic researchers in US through release of Academic software edition. In subsequent year, we plan to release Government & Commercial software editions in US & India to ensure the technology becomes an integral part of microfluidic medical-device simulation-software market, achieving >5% of the US market share. By year 5, we plan to establish partnerships with industry firms to consolidate market position in US, and ensure that the software becomes part of standard microfluidic medical-device design-simulation process, achieving >10% of global market share. We also plan to adapt the technology for other relevant microfluidic technology commercial applications, to ensure financial sustainability.

We are a social-mission-driven venture developing humanitarian-software-solutions, & our team members enjoy collaborating with individuals & organizations in the social-impact community. We have previously participated in multiple social entrepreneurship activities, such as MIT IDEAS Global Challenge & USAID TechCon. We now plan to leverage our experiences & connections formed through MIT Solve to deliver this solution and achieve our commercial & social-impact goals. 

Coming from a family of medical professionals in India & having been associated with USAID HESN and MIT CITE & D-Lab programs, we have first-hand understanding of the immediate benefits that this technology can provide. Our software technology, once channeled to the appropriate stakeholders, can bring tremendous value to millions of people globally, and MIT Solve would allow us access to such networks that could be fundamental to our long-term success. 

Through participation in NSF Innovation-Corps Program, we are currently engaging the industry during technology development for easing commercial adoption. MIT Solve would complement this process by providing insights into the health-security space in emerging markets. Specifically, MIT Solve can augment & focus our venture's efforts through its unique networking & partnership opportunities with its members, mentors and alumni, who can provide valuable strategic insights on navigating the social-entrepreneurship ecosystem & developing strong relationships with stakeholders (including customers, intermediary organizations, & beneficiaries). Along with grant funding, this would enable us to develop a more inclusive technology & effectively market the engineering relevance of our software to relevant customers, which is critical for an early stage B2B2C venture. 

NA

Through NSF Innovation-Corps Program, we will actively engage academic researchers, engineering consultants & industry firms for technology development. Other organizations of interest include UNICEF, USAID & Schwab Foundation, which can assist in connecting with relevant stakeholders & transitioning the software for healthcare applications in emerging markets. There are also multiple initiatives within the MIT ecosystem such as D-Lab, Kumbhathon & J-WAFS that are aligned with our mission of using technology to attain social-impact at scale. A number of MIT Solve members also work in technology enabled health-security space, such as Gates Foundation, Intuitive Foundation, Oxford Sciences Innovation, Microsoft, Novartis Foundation, Deshpande Foundation. Given the complex issues that arise in emerging markets in healthcare space, these groups can specifically help in commercialization of technology. 

Our approach involves utilizing AI-based software to ensure health-security of population, particularly in low resource settings. A significant number of infectious diseases during epidemics occur in developing countries & refugee camps, which disproportionately affect women and children. Therefore, we would be especially interested in partnering with MIT Solve members working in this space and using their insights in targeting application of our software to scale our impact globally. These include the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, whose mission is to improve lives of individuals through information technology, the Vodafone Americas Foundation, whose mission is to connect an ecosystem of partners that use technology to empower women and girls, and the Andan foundation, which is dedicated to refugee self-reliance for which health security and well-being are of paramount importance.

Our advanced stochastic-simulation software utilizes artificial intelligence techniques for incorporating design improvements during the engineering evaluation of next generation microfluidic medical-devices. This enables the development of affordable point-of-care diagnostic tools & effective drug-discovery platforms, which can be employed to ensure health-security of population at a large-scale, particularly in low-resource settings. 

Our team will use the prize to overcome the technical challenges associated with technology development & commercialization, and thereby achieve our social-impact goals. Specifically, we will focus on (1) formulating novel scientific algorithms for advancing the state-of-the-art in spectral stochastic analysis, and enhancing efficiency & fidelity of numerical schemes to improve productivity, (2) application of innovative engineering-analysis approaches & AI-based techniques for enabling design improvements & increasing operating-performance. Thus, the grant would support our efforts to perform fusion of information technology, artificial intelligence, and high-performance-computing, which is critical for the development of progressively-complex microfluidic medical-devices, to vastly improve the human condition globally.

Our approach involves utilizing innovative stochastic-simulation software technology to ensure health-security of population, particularly in low resource settings. A significant number of infectious diseases during epidemics occur in developing countries, which disproportionately affect women (especially pregnant women) and children (especially girls). As suggested in [1], “For many infectious diseases, women are at higher risk and have more severe course of illness than men for many reasons, including biologic differences, social inequities, and restrictive cultural norms."

Our microfluidic-device design-software can play a crucial role in rapid near-term response to mitigate such disease-outbreaks, & in enhancing long-term access to primary-healthcare. In addition, the technology can also be adapted for addressing the healthcare needs of women & girls, including comprehensive diagnosis and prognosis of obstetrical & gynecological diseases.

Our team will use the prize to understand the specific medical needs of women & girls, and focus on associated inclusive-software technology-development to address the technological healthcare challenges. The grant would also enable us to connect with relevant organizations working in this space to ascertain product-market fit, stakeholders & customer profiles, demonstrate technology for potential collaborators, and pursue partnership opportunities.

Reference:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3329060/  

Andan foundation is dedicated to refugee resilience & self-reliance, for which health security and well being are of paramount importance. As suggested in [1], high infectious-disease prevalence has been reported in refugee and asylum seeker populations (e.g. latent tuberculosis infection, LTBI, among 43% of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa). Our microfluidic-device design-software offers a technological solution to ensure health-security of population, particularly in low resource settings, such as refugee camps, that have experienced a significant number of infectious disease-outbreaks in recent years.

Our team will use the prize to understand the specific medical needs of refugee populations, and focus on associated inclusive-software technology-development to address the technological healthcare challenges. The grant would also enable us to connect with relevant organizations working in this space to ascertain product-market fit, stakeholders & customer profiles, demonstrate technology for potential collaborators, and pursue partnership opportunities.

Reference:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810046/  

A significant number of infectious diseases during epidemics occur in developing countries, which disproportionately affect women (especially pregnant women) and children (especially girls) due to biological and cultural differences as well as restrictive cultural norms as pointed out in [1]. Moreover, as suggested in [2], high infectious-disease prevalence has been reported in refugee and asylum seeker populations because of poor living conditions during and after migration (e.g. latent tuberculosis infection, LTBI, among 43% of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa). Our innovative software platform offers a technological solution to promote good health and well-being (Sustainable development goal # 3), specifically targeted towards people in developing countries by enabling rapid development of point of care microfluidic-medical devices. The use of these devices is extremely important as it enables the rapid diagnosis of these infectious diseases. Also, achieving health security amongst underprivileged population, specifically women, is of critical importance to achieve gender equality (Sustainable development goal # 5). Our solution directly complements these sustainable development goals.

The People’s Prize will enable us to enhance our understanding of the populations that are most heavily impacted by this pandemic as well as other more common infectious diseases and which require the most urgent attention. It will help us ascertain our product-market fit, invest in resources needed to develop a targeted software for the specific populations that are impacted the most as well as partner with relevant organizations to scale our solution. The prize would also enable us to demonstrate our solution to collaborators and pursue other partnership opportunities.

References:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3329060/  

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810046/