Boyd Biomedical Design Stories Boyd Biomedical

Artificial intelligence is an enabling technology which should enhance existing products, services, and people. It will be more powerful as an additive and enabling technology rather than a reductive one. We discuss how Sherlock Biosciences plans to offer open-source product development to biomedical companies on their proven platform.

A large portion of Sherlock Biosciences' funding is from organizations focused on global health. This includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Dustin Moskovitz's Open Philanthropy Project. With their support, Sherlock Biosciences is bringing a simple tongue swab disposable test to low-income countries. Typically only 25% of people with tuberculosis get tested but Sherlock Biosciences could increase that to upwards of 75%. We discuss how important sources of funding are.

If you test more people, more often, you can diagnose medical conditions earlier. Accurate, affordable, and accessible diagnostic tests can change the prevalence of conditions around the world. We discuss Sherlock Biosciences' plans to bend the curve on population health.

The spread of sexually transmitted diseases is more prevalent in young, rural, low-income, minority communities where access to healthcare is often limited. This exacerbates the spread of disease. Solutions are complicated because these communities are inherently outside the traditional healthcare system. We discuss improving access by providing affordable, accessible, and high-quality diagnostics as a point of entry.

Sherlock Biosciences was the first FDA authorized use of CRISPR and an interesting application of the technology. We discuss how their technology works at low temperatures, because of CRISPR, which enables the same accuracy as a lab test in a simple-to-use at-home test. This same CRISPR technology can be applied to tests for genetic mutations, prenatal testing, early detection of cancer, and much more.

We associate ease of use and low-cost with low-tech. When products don't work we throw them out and try a new one. But what happens if you raise the stakes? If you are prescreening yourself with an at-home test for cancer. That test better work.

We discuss how Sherlock Biosciences is creating an extremely sophisticated diagnostics platform that is also low-cost, user-friendly, and works every time.