Molecular Reality Corporation is developing utility-scale molecular sensing—a world in which everyone can easily "see"1 any kind of molecule from around them and inside them on demand. We believe this could be the decisive infrastructure that liberates us from biological suffering.
But building it will be a massive engineering challenge, beyond the reach of any single organization.
The first phase alone will take thousands of people doing hundreds of thousands of experiments. That's why we created the MR1 Molecular Streaming Device™.
It's a phone-sized2 solid-state nanopore R&D device for citizen science. Its software includes Maxine's Quest3, a platform for "molecular games". With toy-like ease-of-use and gamified experimentation, you can contribute useful data on day 1 with no learning curve4.
With the MR1 and gamified army-scale coordination, the corps of molecular streamers will aim for the two major breakthroughs needed to enable utility-scale solid-state molecular sensing: polymer sequencing5 and analytical universality6.
As we develop more advanced methods, we will distribute MR1 hardware upgrades and accessories, enabling mechanical nanopores7, nanopore "printing"8, multi-modal detection9, and correlative validation workflows10—while creating a virtual hyper-instrument operated by thousands of independent human minds, exploring the vast parameter space11 of solid-state pore-based sensing.
The long-term project unfolds in three multi-year phases. Phase One—over the course of 3-5 years, solving polymer sequencing and analytical universality. Phase Two—deploy the Molecular PC™, a high-throughput next-gen solid-state nanopore sensor, supporting a mass movement of biotech geeks at the scale of the 1980s personal computer revolution. Phase Three—residential infrastructure deployment, installing sensors in toilets, sinks, showers, and air handling systems, enabling continuous "molecular streaming" for all.
What this means for you and your loved ones: catching cancer before it's life-threatening, characterizing novel pathogens on first contact, and training a Large Biomolecular World Model personalized to cure all (your) diseases and tunably rejuvenate your aging body.
What this means for the world: disease and aging becomes optional, and it becomes safe to develop and use robust synthetic biology12.
Want to help and be a part of it? Molecular Reality Corporation is operated and managed through a role-playing game called Epic Quest Bio™. There are many roles you can play—as an investor, scientist, engineer, writer, truth-seeker, geek, and/or gamer—and you can earn real equity in the corporation by playing. Email us to get started!
The best time to do this is .
References
[1] "see" as in identify, measure, count, characterize, and/or discover.
[2] MR1 hardware preview: https://youtu.be/JcvNUEZ4abY
[3] Maxine's Quest https://youtu.be/ka0K0egiPl4
[4] For advanced users, its open source design will allow you to design your own protocols and control software.
[5] No one has yet shown a reproducible protocol for sequencing polymers (DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.) in a solid-state nanopore.
[6] The goal of analytical universality means being able to "see" any given molecule (or other analyte) in arbitrarily complex mixtures without affinity reagents.
[7] Mechanical nanopores via sliding occlusion: stacked laterally-movable membranes with dynamically coalignable apertures enabling real-time pore adjustment, translocation control, "ping-pong" oversampling for extreme precision, and fouling regeneration. Here is an example of pioneering work in this direction: https://youtu.be/u-03aGGzroA
[8] We're developing novel in situ pore fabrication methods.
[9] Examples include ionic/transverse tunneling current, optical/plasmonic, force spectroscopy—wherever the mission leads.
[10] To include small and inexpensive additional instrumentation such as light microscopes, but also large in-house and distributed instrumentation such as mass spec and various sequencing technologies.
[11] This will include pore materials/geometries/chemistries, buffer conditions, voltage protocols, and globally diverse GPS-tagged samples.
[12] Which in turn solves material and energy scarcity, restoration of wilderness, and rapid terraforming of other planets. If we can imagine it, we can grow it. If we have utility-scale molecular sensing, it will be exponentially safer to do so.