Molecular Reality Corporation

Problem: No Utility for Molecular Reality

• Molecular data is scarce, siloed, and expensive; high-quality signals come mostly from well-resourced labs running narrow, target-specific assays.
• Existing platforms (qPCR, mass spec, ELISA, biological nanopores) are powerful but fragile, reagent-bound, and fundamentally not deployable in plumbing, HVAC, or consumer hardware at global scale.
• Solid-state nanopores are the only sensing modality with the theoretical range to see ions, small molecules, polymers, viruses, cells, and aggregates in a single architecture, but progress has been slow due to cost, tedium, and lack of coordinated parameter search.

Core Thesis

• Universal, label-free molecular identification will not be solved by a single heroic lab; it requires a Manhattan Project–scale exploration of pore materials, geometries, voltages, buffers, and analytes.
• The only tractable way to explore this combinatorial space is a distributed, standardized, solid-state platform generating massive, diverse, open datasets for machine learning models trained directly on raw ionic current time series.
• The MR1 Molecular Streaming Device plus Epic Quest Bio™ is that platform: thousands of identical instruments, coordinated, gamified experiments, and a unified data pipeline into a single Molecular World Model.

Platform: MR1 Device Specifications

Handheld, solid-state Coulter / nanopore hybrid for resistive pulse sensing over ~pA–µA current ranges.

Electronics Stack

• ESP32‑S3 MCU for control, streaming, on-device preprocessing.
• LMP7721 ultra‑low input bias current transimpedance preamp for picoampere resolution.
• MAX11169 16‑bit ADC, 10–125 kS/s effective sampling.
• MCP4822 DAC plus TL3541 op‑amps for precise bias control and fast polarity switching.
• Four-layer FR‑4 PCB with separated analog/digital domains and star-ground.

Flow-cell Architecture

• Replaceable cartridges with silicon micropores (Bosch DRIE) in first wave.
• Roadmap pores: SiN, SiO₂, Al₂O₃, HfO₂, monolayer graphene, MoS₂, h‑BN, polymers (PET, polyimide).
• Integrated Ag/AgCl electrodes with mechanical provisions for future multi-pore arrays.

Science Roadmap

Phase 1 (Current)

Micron-scale particles and cells; Coulter-counter replication, flow optimization. Parameter sweeps across pore size and voltage. Open data for early ML models.

Years 2–3

Viral-scale and protein-scale analytes. Target 0.1–10 bases/s solid-state DNA sequencing attempts. Begin multi-analyte classification via supervised/unsupervised models.

Years 4–5

Second-gen (MR2) CMOS-integrated arrays (10³–10⁶ pores/chip) with multi-modal detection. First “universal diagnostic” prototypes.

Years 5–10

Infrastructure deployment: smart toilets, sinks, and HVAC; continuous passive monitoring of human/environmental molecular flux.

Key Technical Innovations

• Mechanical nanopores: Laterally movable overlapping apertures enabling real-time mechanical control of effective pore cross-section for translocation slowdown and oversampling.
• Ping-pong translocation control: Fast voltage polarity switching to shuttle individual particles back-and-forth, enabling sub-cubic-angstrom volumetric precision.
• Galaxy-of-pores strategy: Systematic A/B testing across substrate materials, geometries, and buffers via standardized cartridges at pennies per flow cell.
• Molecular World Model: Transformers and deep RL agents trained on raw ionic current time series to optimize discriminability and throughput.

Research Methodology

The "Molecular Streaming Corps" distributes research via Epic Quest Bio™:

• Thousands of Player Scientists™ operating standardized MR1 devices.
• Experiments encoded as gamified missions (Maxine’s Quest™).
• Reward structure (XP → advisory equity) aligned to data quality, novelty (USPEs), and community contributions.

Validation: Cross-user reproducibility metrics using shared reference samples. Orthogonal benchmarking against qPCR and mass spec.

Why Solid-State (vs. Biopores)?

Competitive Position

• Deep ss-nanopore experience:We pioneered new types of solid-state nanopores and Prof. George Church, one of the first inventors of nanopore sensing, invested in our mission.
• Full Stack: Integrated hardware (MR1), software, and community stack. No dependence on fragile biological components.
• Radical Openness: Open-source hardware/firmware and public domain signal data preventing IP lock-up.
• Business Model: Data, algorithms, and infrastructure rather than instrument sales.

Applications

• Near term: Coulter-style cell counting, water/wastewater monitoring, food spoilage.
• Medium term: Viral/bacterial classification, protein kinetics, microbiome profiling.
• Long term: Point-of-use plumbing diagnostics, early disease detection, longitudinal phenotyping.

Ethics & Governance

• Acknowledges privacy risks of utility-scale sensing; treats as a civilizational design problem.
• Data moves from open research (early) to privacy-preserving protocols (clinical).
• Community co-ownership via XP→equity pipeline.