Commercial Assistance Required - IPreferPI

Dear readers of sci.materials

Apologies to the readers of this newsgroup if this request is severely misplaced. It is, as you may gauge, a genuine request for commercial assistance rather than spam.

We represent a biotechnology company domiciled in the Republic of South Africa. The company is owned and managed by a consortium of entrepreneurs, and is currently developing novel IP in the field of bio-reactive materials. Having secured sufficient first-phase working capital, and with satisfactory progress on our worldwide patent claims, we now seek expert assistance for the further technical development phase of our business. This letter is intended as a request for assistance in this regard.

Our need is as follows:

  1. We are looking for a chemical engineering solution that indicates whether or not a substrate has been touched by human skin, specifically fingertips, by way of a rapid (i.e. seconds) and permanent visible (to the naked eye) change in the substrate.

  1. The solution should be engineered to be cheap, non-toxic, non-transferable and stable (pH, temperature, light, water and most commonly available solvents).

  2. We have demonstrated proof of principle using filter paper impregnated with Ninhydrin; but this solution is neither safe (carcinogenic), nor stable (it oxidizes quickly) and the substrate seems inappropriate for our purposes.

  1. Further investigations into bio-reactive compounds, covalently bonded to a polymer backbone, appear worthwhile. We know of several compounds that are known to interact with amino acids to produce a colour reaction (eg's. erythrulose, 5-MTN , di-hydroxy-acetone, sudan black) and there are likely to be many more we are unaware of. We are not professional chemists.

  2. We are looking for a solution that may or may not be novel. The specific application of the technology, whether it is existing or new, is of more interest to us and this forms the basis of our dependent patent claims (PCT documentation available upon request).

We therefore require a researcher or a research group with some degree of innovation and possibly synthetic know-how. Polymer technology may or may not be required - depending on the solution sought. We are not looking for guarantees, simply honest and creative research.

We have spent several months consulting with the South African academic chemistry groups and commercial laboratories, and are now desirous of seeking more appropriate expertise from the international scientific community.

We will require a basic non-disclosure and cession of IP agreement to be entered into before the research commences. If you know of any experimental grouping or commercial lab that may have an interest in this consulting project, please be so kind as to direct them to us. Your efforts would be most appreciated.

Lastly, please do not respond to this missive directly as a thread on this newsgroup but rather directly with ourselves (my contact details are noted below).

Your sincerely,

Dr Daniel Polakow

Executive Chairman IPreferPI Scientific Venture Capitalism (Proprietary) LTD Reg: 2006/027323/07

M: +27 82-874-8558 E: snipped-for-privacy@polka.co.za

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