Two brothers, a sensor the size of a credit-card chip, and a $20 million bet from Vitalik Buterin - Varro wants to catch the next pandemic in 60 seconds, then hand the recipe to the world.
Resonant Sensors Incorporated (RSI) is an Arlington, Texas biotechnology company that builds label-free optical biosensor systems based on its patented guided-mode resonance (GMR) technology. Its ResoSens Ultra-Mab Pro benchtop plate reader and disposable Bionetic microarray plates let researchers watch molecular binding interactions in real time, in a standard 96-well format, using tiny sample volumes and no fluorescent labels. RSI targets antibody discovery, epitope binning, hybridoma screening, kinetics and cell-based assays for immunotherapy, diagnostics and life-science research, and also offers analytical contract testing services.
Koniku is a California synthetic-biology company that builds 'wetware' - devices that fuse living, engineered neurons with silicon to smell the world. Its Konikore sensor programs biological receptors to detect odors, explosives, chemical vapors and disease biomarkers at sensitivities that rival a dog's nose, aiming to give machines a sense of smell for airport security, healthcare and industrial monitoring.
QURA, Inc. is a preclinical medical-technology company in Massachusetts building a tiny implanted sensor that continuously measures blood pressure and wirelessly transmits medical-grade waveform data to patients and physicians in real time. Its QSmart platform - a vitamin-sized QSense implant paired with software and analytics - aims to replace the occasional cuff reading with always-on monitoring, targeting hypertension, the leading cardiovascular risk factor worldwide. The technology grew out of an earlier wireless implantable pressure sensor developed for glaucoma (intraocular pressure) monitoring.