I founded Harmonigenic Corporation to commercialize an optical assay For low-risk breast cancer patients (N0) who face the problem of overtreatment with over 50% receiving harmful treatments they do not benefit from because they will not experience recurrence (metastasis) in their lifetime, the envisioned commercial diagnostic service will be a central lab that will use existing tissue slides prepared for pathologic diagnosis and sent to our lab where a rapid quantitative optical parameter, that we call OPTIM (also referred to as F/B in the lab) will be measured. OPTIM is produced by what is known as second harmonic generation light scattering off collagen molecules in the extracellular matrix around tumor cells, unlike genomic methods which focus on the cells and are “cell’ based and have a much higher sample failure rate using methods that destroy the sample.


OPTIM (Optical Prediction of Time Interval to Metastasis), our first optical assay diagnostic will advance personalized medicine to improve treatment decisions at diagnosis of breast & colon cancer where roughly half are at risk of recurrence & need tailored treatment decisions, avoiding recurrence. Through our development and our NSF I-Corp experience, we have realized that what the market wants is a better selection of those low-risk patients who still need treatment in order to achieve optimal outcomes and quality of life.