The Hyper Light
Story – for LinkedIn by Kurt Garrett, Founder, 2017.
Key words. Hyper Light, Hyper Light
Technologies, Hyperlight, Lumagenics, Ultraviolet light, UV
Forward. Today, strong financial
support and outstanding third-party contract testing characterize Hyper Light
Technologies. The high energy solutions company I have nurtured for now two decades
is enjoying superior financial undergirding and animated technical advisors and
collaborators. It has taken time and persistence to get here.
DEVELOPMENT OF A BASIC SCIENCE
IDEA. My days as a synthetic organic chemist brought me face to face with ultraviolet
light used to maintain sterile water for an ophthalmic solution. The orphan
drug was owned by Burroughs Wellcome Pharmaceutical Company, my employer. That brief
encounter with ultraviolet light would greatly impact my future.
Downsizing Remote Source Lighting
International, RSLI, provided me the opportunity to develop some of my ideas. In
1998, I founded a one-man technology incubator called CSMO, Inc. My corporate laboratory was located at Shaw
University in the Robert’s Science Building. To supplement my income, I was employed
as a Science Specialist in a local law firm.
My goal was to apply rapid DNA
inactivation of high energy UV light to kill microbes on surfaces. I called the
device HPUV (high performance ultraviolet light – named after the chemical
analysis instrument HPLC). Within three months I postulated that the same
system could be used for medical applications to include cancer treatment and a
novel vaccine methodology. That same
year, I filed two patent application: 1) an anti-jaundice formulation for the
mortuary industry and 2) microbial sterilization using polychromatic light.
A NEW LAMP GIVES NEW
POSSIBILITIES. The uniqueness of the lamp design was radically different than
conventional low pressure UV lights. I ordered the high pressure lamp from a
California supplier and after reviewing the electromagnetic spectra containing
an enrichment of 254 nm, I knew it was possible that I could inactivate DNA in
pathogens. The high pressure lamp was
compact and easy to use. Insight into the applications and action of mechanism was
slow coming but the modification of the lamp to enhance pathogen inactivation
energy was mostly simple adjustments.
THE CHRISTMAS GIFT. I conducted initial
tests in my garage using microbes isolated from ventilator dust. After
obtaining sheep blood plates and instructions from friends at Burroughs
Wellcome and ECU Medical School, I grew cultures to be used for my experiments.
Working out of my garage, I used a heating blanket to double as an incubator.
Within 24 hours the plated dust produced frothing and foul smelling bacteria. Now
I had hardy inoculum to test the efficacy of my new lamp, it was Christmas Eve.
I spread inoculum on several sheep blood plates, covered half of the plate with
heavy card stock and placed the streaked petri dishes under the light in
intervals for up to 90 seconds. On Christmas morning I rushed to the garage to
find the light exposed half of the petri dish was clearly unchanged and the
other side was covered with mucous foul-smelling bacteria. It was indeed
Christmas.
BACHENHEIMER EXPERIMENT.
Following a helpful lead from a former graduate student, I met Steve
Bachenheimer, a microbiologist with specialty in herpes simplex virus (HSVII) research
at UNC-CH. Dr. Bachenheimer conducted tests that demonstrated that my system
killed a million colonies of HSV in three seconds! When I shared my findings, I
could not get funding needed to launch a company. Dr. Bachenheimer was a bright
light those days, he agreed to assist me in efforts to gain interest in my
vaccine concepts. I slowed development until I could obtain funding to protect
the technology. Rather than expose key advantages, I abandoned the UV
sterilization patent application after a promising Office Action in 2000.
Incubating new technologies. I
called the new device high pressure UV light (HPUV). The next weeks I spent
testing everything I could get my hands on. I was introduced to Dr. Mark
Brecker, then chief of Transfusion Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Brecker
informed me about the challenge of bacteria in aphaeresis processing and
storage. Dr. Brecker provided Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonae
for testing. HPUV killed both pathogens in under 60 seconds, my confidence was
growing.
UV Robots. I couldn’t get enough
traction to gain a research collaboration in the local area. The few
presentations I made to Angel Investors were received poorly or failed to
mature. I have to admit, I wasn’t very savvy,
and most scientists were busy with their own ideas guarding precious limited federal
funding. In contrast, interest in HPUV’s
promise was highest among housewives, law enforcement and restaurant owners.
North Raleigh residents clamored for a portable hand-held disinfection
appliance to ease growing fears about germs. The Raleigh Police Department
committed to purchase a unit for disinfecting their cruisers and restaurant
owners loved the potential for non-residual disinfection of their food
preparation surfaces. I raised a few dollars those days among family and
friends to keep testing and development going. I treated everything I could get
my hands with HPUV, extending the application for use and drawing new concepts
all the while building up HPUV intellectual property. Change was on the
horizon. I receive a call from my college roommate, and first investor, that
Duke Hospitals was featured in the Sunday news paper touting the use of UV
robots in the Bone Marrow Center. I was elated. The UNC/Duke Translational
Medicine grant revived ultraviolet light use for disinfection. Within six
months of the Sunday news story about the UV robots, I signed three university
research collaborations that had previously ignored the technology.
HPUV becomes Hyper Light (HPL).
After the three University collaborations I met a young VC who was fearless and
well connected. We struck a deal in January of 2016 and incorporated Hyper
Light, LLC. We agreed that my new investor would provide all the funding I
needed for all the applications and I would provide product development and IP.
The first thing he wanted to do was change the name from HPUV to something
different. HPUV became Hyper Light™, the new name and logo I created suited my
new investor. We put a few smart people around the table and even my son, near
completion of his PhD degree, interned for the Newco. Within three months we were sitting with venture
firms on Sand Hill in Menlo Park, CA. After
three weeks we left with our business platform and concepts vetted by top business/medical
companies experts. One venture group invited Hyper Light to join them in
providing a disinfection solution for a leading US endoscope manufacturer. We
were encouraged by the Sand Hill VC’s to present the Hyper Light vaccine
concept to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We followed their advice. We flew
to Portland on the trip back to the east coast. Gates Foundation Investment executive
applauded our technology and described a path for us to work together. Gates
Foundation Investment offered their external engineering group and their vast
IP portfolio for the development cycle that would lead to a vaccine. Within two months my VC investor faced mounting
financial difficulty and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In late spring of 2016 I
dissolved Hyper Light, LLC and was again looking for new investors. I raised
enough money from friends that summer to polish the IP portfolio and file a new
patent application in July of 2017. Determined to demonstrate that Hyper Light
could generate revenue, I launched two initiatives, a pilot program offering
surface cleaning in daycares and a licensing strategy. Within seven months I
found a private investment group following advice from a local seasoned attorney.
I would offer up The Hyper Light portfolio that included hard surface deep
disinfection, cancer treatment, and a vaccine methodology. We agreed to a $3M
initial investment for hard surface disinfection. When we have achieved key
milestones, our agreement provides for up to $50M of extended investment
for the two remaining verticals. End Part I.
