Extended Immunity Foundation

The world is becoming increasingly vulnerable to outbreaks of novel viruses like SARS-CoV-2.  Scientists estimate that there are 631,000-827,000 unknown viral species capable of infecting humans.  Current viral discovery methods are conducted by hand which are prohibitively expensive to scale due to the fieldwork logistics and cold chain management of the samples.  In order to scale up viral discovery and reduce costs, we are proposing using artificial intelligence and drones to aid in the sampling of bats, an animal that is uniquely adapted to host and spread many deadly viruses.  The drone would capture bats in flight and deliver the bats to scientists at their labs.  Scientists would then use these samples to discover new viruses and monitor viral dispersion.  Eventually, genomic sequencing techniques will become so cheap that even small municipalities could afford to conduct viral discovery and surveillance and be better prepared to respond to a local outbreak.

Scientists estimate that there are 631,000-827,000 unknown viruses capable of infecting humans.  These viruses are also known as "zoonoses" meaning that they can transmit from animals to humans.  As a global population, we are experiencing the effects of just one of these viruses crossing the animal-human species barrier and spilling over into humans.  Additionally, the likelihood of another such spillover event is increasing as the animal-to-human contact interface expands as a result of phenomena like urbanization, illicit resource extraction, and food insecurity.  Currently, the Global Virome Project estimates that it would cost $7.5 billion to discover 100 percent of unknown zoonotic viruses.  The bulk of this cost is wrapped up in the logistics of fieldwork, sample collection, and cold chain management.  Additionally, current viral discovery techniques (i.e., fieldwork) puts researchers and animals at increased risk of passing pathogens to one another.

The Extended Immunity Foundation plans to reduce the costs, mitigate risks, and dramatically scale viral discovery and surveillance capacity.  Our solution is to replace humans working in the field with drones.  The drones will be well-adapted for use by the minimum number of human caretakers and in austere environments.  As a result, the drones will have vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, pre-programmed flight paths and profiles, artificial intelligence/computer vision algorithms for detecting bats in flight (as soon as they begin to emerge from their colonies), and a net that deploys to capture a number of bats as they fly. By replacing humans in the field with drones that can do the same job, in addition to the drone's ability to travel back and forth from a lab to and area of interest quickly and cheaply, the $7.5 billion cost for discovering 100 percent of the 631,000-827,000 unknown zoonotic viruses could be reduced by one or two orders of magnitude.

The Extended Immunity Foundation (EIF) is working to improve the lives of all humans everywhere by making pandemics a thing of the past.  As the current coronavirus crisis has shown us, anyone can be a victim with marginalized populations facing an even greater risk.  However, before we can end pandemics, there is much work to be done by the virologists and epidemiologists that study and track the viral pathogens that cause these terrible events.  Initially, EIF will equip researchers at government, academic, and private research institutions to give them increased capacity for conducting viral discovery and surveillance.  However, as soon as the EIF and associated viral discovery and surveillance technology becomes cheaper and more accessible, even small municipalities will have robust viral discovery and surveillance programs that work to keep their populations safe.  In a short-time, we want viral discovery and surveillance to be as common as any other public good like municipal drinking water and sewer services and other sanitation services.

Obtaining ubiquitous health security and ending pandemics will be accomplished by effectively extending our innate immune systems beyond our bodies and creating an immune system for the world.  The capability to discover viral threats, create therapies like vaccines and antivirals in advance of any human infection, and deploy those therapies to high-risk areas will prevent a pandemic.  However, this will require an enormous, persistent viral discovery and surveillance mechanism (beyond human capabilities) that drones are ideally suited for.

Think about the current way that some viral fieldwork is conducted.  You need large groups of people, lots of equipment (nets, lab supplies, fuel, food, water, etc.), multiple vehicles, and liquid nitrogen.  Using these methods, the United States Agency for International Development program spent $120 million over 10 years to sample 74,000 animals which resulted in the discovery of 802 novel viruses, however not all of those viruses have zoonotic potential.  Our solution would obviate the need for large groups of people along with the need to move those people and their field equipment into the wild with multiple vehicles.  With our solution, one or two scientists could launch a drone from their local lab site, receive the bats from the drone and perform their sampling work in a lab environment.  There are multiple benefits to this approach including keeping scientists safe from the hazards of fieldwork (e.g, malaria, heat injuries, etc.), giving scientists more time for analytic work, significant cost reduction by eliminating many of the logistical elements required for fieldwork, and increasing the rate of sampling.  At scale, it's not unrealistic that over 74,000 animals could be sampled each day.

Our project integrates technologies with high Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) consisting of autonomous/programmable unmanned drones with high endurance and payload capacity, artificial intelligence/computer vision algorithms applied to detecting animals in nature, and robotic net capture mechanisms in a novel way.  Through this integration, we will rapidly scale viral sampling and gain new insight into how to defend our bodies against viral infection.  Since the first human virus was discovered in 1901 (Yellow Fever Virus), less than 400 viruses capable of infecting humans have been identified.  As the global human population grows and the factors contributing to viral pandemics increase (e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, illicit resource extraction, food insecurity, etc.), we must rapidly close the knowledge gap on the remaining unknown 631,000-827,000 viruses.

Autonomous/programmable unmanned drones with high endurance and payload capacity:  ALTI Reach is currently the world's most capable vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone.  While the upfront cost is high ($295,000) the cost to operate is low ($9.50/flight hour).

Artificial intelligence/computer vision algorithms:  Pilot AI can build the bat detection algorithm for approximately $250,000.

Robotic net capture mechanism:  This work is being pioneered in the counter-unmanned aerial system space.  Here is an example from Airspace Systems, Inc.

Example Integrated System/Technology Analog:  RangerBot, an autonomous underwater robot that patrols the Great Barrier Reef and identifies then kills Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (COTS) to stop the COTS from eating the reef.

In order to have a proactive effect on a system, you must be able to observe that system at a rate greater than the underlying dynamic change inherent to that system.  Proactively preventing a pandemic can be achieved through ubiquitous viral surveillance on a global scale.  We can see a future where viral surveillance and discovery is managed at the municipal level and the data is widely shared on existing genomic databases.  Additionally, researchers can use this data to develop new vaccines, antivirals, and even phage therapies for antibiotic resistant bacteria.  Therapies and population health resources can be smartly focused in the areas most at risk.  By ending the threat of viral pandemics, there will be a global increase in health, happiness, and economic productivity.

We currently do not serve any one, however within two years we hope to work with at least one academic or private laboratory on using drones for viral fieldwork.  Within five years we will be well on our way to achieving a scale where all the world's people are served by a robust, federated viral discovery and surveillance network.

Our solution represents the next technological step in freeing our communities from viruses and potentially other diseases.  In most developed countries, widespread waste management as well as the public drinking water and sewage systems has done more than any other technology in keeping people free from disease.  However, we understand that this is not the case globally and more work needs to be done in these areas.  However, in our solution at scale, communities around the world will be part of a federated viral discovery and surveillance network

Currently, the major issue raising enough funding for research and development (R&D).  So far, it seems that there is ample funding available for projects that create additional capacity, but not much for high-risk/high-reward solutions like we propose.  Even if we are able to get past the R&D phase, the costs for some of this technology are high.  Additional barriers,  include a myriad of national and sub-national legal around the use of drones in their airspace and restrictions on capturing bats in some areas.

To overcome the financial barriers, we will continue to submitting to challenges and competitions such as yours.  Additionally, we are reaching out to the corporations that are already involved in the core technological components of our solution.  To overcome the legal challenges around using drones we will work with the United States Federal Aviation Administration's International Division in obtaining the necessary permissions for operating drones in other than United States airspace.  To overcome the restrictions on capturing bats we will work with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for both domestic and international issues.

We have 3 part-time staff.

Some on our team are geospatial intelligence professionals that were part of the first wave of widespread drone use by the United States Air Force and others for counter-terrorism operations.  As a result of this experience, we understand how useful drones can be in federated operations and the benefits of using drones over "boots on the ground".  We understand the core technology of our solution because certain legacy collection processes in the geospatial industry are currently being disrupted by an increased availability of drones, specialized sensors, and artificial intelligence/computer vision for automated analysis.  Additionally, we have been thinking about and researching the problem of pandemics and our solution since September 2018 and have a good understanding of what it will take to realize our solution at scale.

We are currently pursuing partnerships with a few firms that work on our core technology, however we do not have anything formalized yet.

Our solution is applicable to Goal 3, "Good Health and Well-being" target 3.D, "Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks".  Being selected for The People's Prize would give us access to critical promotional support and matching funds for a crowdfunding campaign.