Dec 25, 2019
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The brilliant son of immigrants discovers a way of identifying and counting bacteria that could upend the world of diagnostics. Listen to this engrossing interview with professor and founder Ed Goluch of QSM Diagnostics.
Highlights include:
- QSM Diagnostics Is What Jeff Behrens Calls a “Scrappy Biotech”
- Ed Goluch Bio
- QSM’s Mission: Identify & Quantify Bacteria Present in a Sample in Minutes
- “No one wants to be the five or ten percent that's misdiagnosed, and so our technology really gets them closer to being perfect and these critical first few minutes and getting it right the first time”.
- The Founding Story of QSM
- Cool Example of Bacteria Interacting with Squid
- Bacteria Communicate to a Startling Degree
- Quorum-Sensing Molecules Allow Fine-Grained Detection Down to the Level of the Species of Bacteria
- “Trying to get a faculty job is actually a lot like starting a startup. You have your idea and you go around pitching to schools”.
- Boston as a Life Science Hub: “This was one of the great parts of being in Boston. I got 20 amazing candidates in less than a week”.
- Why QSM Wants to Get to Human Patients Via the Veterinary Market
- QSM’s Big Pivot: From Addressing Urinary Tract Infections that Require Six Sensors to Ear Infections that Require Just One
- How an Investor Can Make Money Investing in a Scrappy Biotech Like QSM, Hint: Capital Efficiency
- “…we don't want to overlook how large dog ear infections are as a problem… You're looking at 9 million dog infections per year”.
- Getting a Product to Patients with Just $1 Million in Capital Raised Is Very Efficient for a Life Science Business
- Sal Daher Talks About Another Option for Funding: Revenue-Based Financing
- How Ed Goluch Found His Calling: From Being Born to Immigrants in the South Side of Chicago to Getting a PhD
- “…just growing up seeing the hardships of having very little money, parents that are struggling… triggered me to say early on, "I want to get out of this...”
- " My parents said, "This is perfect, you'll have a job, you'll be comfortable." But for me, I was like, "I want to do more."
- Edgar Goluch’s Parting Thoughts
- “Looking back, I think we should have done even more research on…Who’s going to be the user.”
- Accelerators Ed Goluch Attended: Did Not Have to Give Up Any Equity