 Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. John Gluckman from Six Wave Innovation. How are you today, John? Fantastic, Tracy. It's nice to be with you again. Thank you. Well, I'll tell you, I know this is going to put you on the spot, but you're one of the smartest people I know. We're going to talk today about Nanotech and COVID-19. You're an entrepreneur, a scientist, a co-founder of Six Wave, and you're the CEO. Is that correct? You got it. I play all those roles. Of course, speaking of roles, right now, you're so important. Anyone involved, front wave, anybody involved in COVID-19, treatment, defense, offense, you name it, and Six Wave is right in the game with COVID-19. Can you explain to our audience how you're involved and how you've taken your Nanotech and applied it to this challenge right now? We work in a nanotechnology space called molecular imprinted polymers. It's a unique way of gathering and identifying molecules down at their molecular level, at the individual molecule level. We've applied that in a number of areas, and we've figured out that we could definitely apply it here to the detection of viruses in general, and more specifically for COVID-19. So we're in the process, we're in our Phase II part of our development for a COVID-19 test that would be a completely synthetic test based on our molecular imprinted polymer technology. And of course, everybody out there, the supergeeks are going to love hearing more from you, Dr. Gluckman. However, some of the rest of us are going to appreciate this next question, which is, can you please dumb down what you just said and tell us how this, why a synthetic test, for instance, would have an advantage for testing for COVID-19? Yeah, so that's a great question. So there are two tests right now, and then I'll link it a little bit to the vaccines as well. So there are two types of tests that people have probably heard about and maybe even gotten. The one is a PCR test, and in that case, they're collecting the viral samples, but they have to break the virus apart and then look for RNA and DNA sequences of the virus, multiply that in equipment, like grow more of it in order to have enough of that that they can actually detect a signal. Well, that's a complicated test. You've got to collect the sample and send it to a laboratory to have that analyzed. And that can be a lengthy process as well as a costly process. The second type of rapid tests that we're all hearing about but not seeing a lot of are antigen tests. And essentially, they're also made up of biological materials. So in order to create them, you have to actually grow the virus. You have to infect animals. They grow an immune response to it, so they grow antibodies. Those antibodies then need to be harvested from the animals and then processed into these lateral flow tests or ELISA tests, which change color in the presence of the virus. Well, that genetic material is still there. We're still working with biological material, and that material then is fragile. So it can be affected by heat or cold. It breaks down over time, and of course, it's got a tremendous infrastructure to support growing all those pieces in order to produce that test. And we all know about the vaccines that have been announced recently and the challenges that they have because they're biological material again of needing deep freezer in order for transportation and distribution. The advantage of having a polymer do all of this is that we can essentially replicate all of the human biology about how to detect a virus by whole immune response. We can do that in plastic. And so we can make an endless amount of tiny, tiny, tiny little pieces of plastic that essentially act like that entire biological system, and we can create the detection in that plastic. So what does that mean? It means that I don't have a complicated supply chain. I can do it at very low cost because, of course, I'm not sacrificing animals and all of these other things. I don't need to store it at low freezing levels because it's polymer. And then, of course, I can implement it in any number of different kinds of systems that we could actually use, like a mask or a breathalyzer or an air handling system. Because it's polymer, I don't have to worry about breakdown of biological material in my test. So from a cost perspective, a production perspective, a support perspective, this really, really is the next generation of where not just COVID-19 testing can go, but ongoing testing for influenza or venereal diseases and a host of other viruses. And so that's what our real goal here is. Let's meet this immediate need, but then a form that has longevity and expansion capability to be able to address larger viral detection requirements. So if I hear you correct, what you're providing is basically you're utilizing nanotech to create a synthetic test that is both more cost effective if I hear you correct. Is that? Absolutely. Perhaps simpler to use. You mentioned a breathalyzer. Is this one of the applications that Sixth Wave is currently entertaining? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, what easier thing is there to do if you're going somewhere and then put a mask on, you breathe into it. There's no complexity there. I'm the same thing with the breathalyzer. So let's say you were going into work and you needed to have some kind of system where everybody could be checked regularly and they didn't want to wear a mask. Sure. Why not just breathe into a little tube for a few minutes and recollect lots of samples? You do advantage because we get to take multiple samples unlike a swab and that can actually significantly increase the sensitivity and reliability of our tests. Of course, I feel even guilty spending time having this interview with you when immediately I want to speed dial you as a colleague and say, how fast can you make this happen? Because many of us have endured COVID-19 tests with the nasal probe. And so I'm going to ask you the question you probably least enjoy, which is, how fast can you get this to market, John? Well, we're really trying to press as quickly as we can. We have some good progress happening in the chemistry. We expect that before the end of the year, if everything goes well, we ought to be able to have first articles of our polymer that are detecting and successfully isolating the COVID-19 and perhaps even influenza viruses. And then we'll start the procedures for productizing that. So we're already working with key Canadian infrastructures to set up manufacturing lines for this and ensure that we can move all this forward and that we're well connected with both the Canadian and U.S. government activities that would need to provide emergency use authorization. So we're trying to do all that concurrently and have something that we might be able to working for certification and distribution mid-year next year. Unfortunately, we just need to keep spending the time to do it. And we're looking for all of the ways that we can accelerate that for sure. So the rapid virus test kits that we're talking about and that are in reference in your on your website, for instance, these may potentially be to market for both COVID-19 and even influenza testing by mid next year. Is that correct? Yeah, if we keep if we keep pressing and things continue to move successfully, that's that's our goal. Well, speaking of that, I do I did read in one of your most recent news releases that you received funding from Nova Scotia COVID-19 Response Council. I am certain that this is exceedingly competitive to receive. Can you tell me what your competitive advantage was that they selected you over all the many competitors out there? Is it, you know, did they have an example of your IQ test to Dr. Gluckman or what exactly happened that allowed you to get to front of the line? Oh, Tracy. Well, you know, it's it's always hard to tell. But as I've discussed, you know, this particular approach to doing virus testing is really unique. And it does solve a number of issues that I think, you know, we've always been able to do some level of virus testing with these old procedures. But when you have a pandemic, it starts to identify the the holes, the pockets, the the yeah, we can't really scale this stuff up as quickly as we would like. And so as we started to communicate with government activities, including Nova Scotia government, we started educating them about what is the potential for using this synthetic architecture of molecular imprints. And they viewed this really as having the opportunity to to take the whole enterprise of virus testing to the next level. And I think while while we've been excited about the potential to have immediate impact or close to immediate impact on the COVID-19 problem, they recognize that the larger health problems of virus identification and having rapid and accurate testing could also be addressed with this procedure and this this this model of molecular imprinting. And so I think they were equally interested in the the ability for us to kind of revolutionize the whole the whole enterprise and make it more cost effective for Canadians, you know, broadly. Well, John, I want you to know that we want you to get back to work now and get this virus test ready for us as soon as possible. And for those of you out there, this is six wave innovation. You can find more information online on our site. Dr. Gluckman, thank you for joining us. Tracy Tracy, as always, thanks for having me. I really appreciate your time as well.