Richard Guilfoyle
Zephyr Cove, NV (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal
Sierra Biophotonics
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Startup
Location:
Zephyr Cove
Industry:
Technology/Web
Year Founded:
2011
Number Employees:
1-10 people
Business Stage:
Creation/Idea
Entity Type:
Not Incorporated
Description:
As a spin-off of another optoelectronics company, we seek to further develop, manufacture and bring to market a novel spectrophotometric platform easily adaptable in design for multi-market targets including applications in nanotechnology research, basic biomedical research, biomedical diagnostics, pharmaceutical HTS, biodefense, environmental monitoring, homeland security and anti-counterfeiting. We have already developed the proof-of-principle prototype which can be made manufacturing-ready and mature rapidly and with minimal investment. The instrumentation will use simple and inexpensive NIR/VIS optics/spectrometry to support the emerging and growing market of nanoparticles referred to as upconverting phosphor nanocrystals (UPNs) which are now commercially available as biofunctionalized, and for which the growing customer base desperately needs specialized and affordable readers not yet available (i.e. short of their retrofitting existing and expensive optically incompatible equipment). The reader and nanocrystals will be synergistically reinforcing in helping the growth of each product, especially if co-marketed. Compared with conventional down-conversion fluorescent labels, the lanthanide ion doped UPNs convert two or more photons of lower energy (e.g. 980 nm) into higher energy photons as multiple color bands in the visible light range under single NIR wavelength absorption/excitation and exhibit phosphorescent decay. These unique compounds have clear potential and advantages as labels for a wide range of biological and security applications for which there is a plethora of supporting scientific literature. Our reader is designed to maximize the excitation and multiplexed detection of these nanoparticles for a number of biotech and security applications/markets, and we believe there is an opportunity for achieving excellent gross revenues, gross margin, profitability and ROI in the next 3-5 years. The co-founders bring decades of collective knowledge and academic and industrial experience in both optoelectronics and biotechnology.