Market Assessment of Re-PAIR: A CRISPR-based technology for secure molecular tracking and supply chain control

在商业领域，对安全、防篡改的供应链跟踪手段的需求日益迫切。随着全球欺诈行为达到历史最高水平，受监管市场的复杂性日益增加，以及高风险产品的监管链面临挑战，推出易于处理和使用点的分子条形码是理想的时机。分子条形码是利用分子技术，使用合成的核酸序列来标记商品，以便识别产品和相关信息，如制造原产地。这一概念类似于光学条形码系统，如UPC或二维码，但其优点是“条形码”很难伪造，可以嵌入整个产品，使篡改变得困难，保管链更安全。在这份提案中，我们提出了一种基于CRISPR的新技术，该技术允许在需要时从产品中读取分子条形码，从而使最终用户、进口商、政府机构和其他机构能够进行简单的产品验证和跟踪。我们的工作流程已经成功地设计并执行了大摩尔浓度下的RNA和DNA条形码检测(类似诊断)，显示了其检测复杂样本中任何类型核酸的能力。我们将利用I2I市场评估基金提供的独特机会接触潜在客户，以确定理想的目标市场和痛点，这些市场和痛点将为我们的商业化市场进入战略提供参考，并使我们能够确定我们创新技术的价值主张。

The need for a secure, tamper resistant means of supply chain tracking is increasingly urgent in commerce. With global fraud at an all-time high, increasing complexity in regulated markets and challenges in the chain-of-custody with high-risk products, the timing for a tractable and point-of-use molecular barcode is ideal. Molecular barcoding is the use of molecular technologies to label, using synthetic nucleic acid sequences, commodities for the purpose of identifying the product and related information such as manufacturing origin. The concept is analogous to optical barcoding systems, such UPC or QR codes, but with the advantage that the "barcode" is difficult to counterfeit and can be embedded throughout the product, making tampering difficult and the chain of custody more secure. In this proposal, we present a new CRISPR based technology that allows molecular barcodes to be read from products at the point-of-need, enabling simple product authentication and tracking by end-users, importers, government agencies and beyond. Our workflow has been used to successfully design and perform RNA and DNA barcode sensing (diagnostic-like) at attomolar concentrations, showing its ability to detect any type of nucleic acid in complex samples. We will use the unique opportunity presented by the I2I Market Assessment grant to reach out to the potential customers in order to identify ideal target markets and pain points that will inform our market entry strategy for the commercialization and allow us to define the value proposition for our innovative technology.