History

Benjamin Pascal and Nicholas Siciliano founded Invisible Sentinel in 2006 as a developmental stage company focused on addressing the significant and growing problem of global food safety. Driven to continually push the limits of innovation, they committed themselves to developing next generation technologies that would make the detection of microbial pathogens that cause foodborne illness faster, easier, more affordable, and highly reliable.

As a sign of interest in the new technology and confidence in the team at Invisible Sentinel, the company has been successful in raising four rounds of capital to grow the company, garnering re-investment from existing shareholders, and consistently expanding the shareholder base.

Since its inception, Invisible Sentinel has met every development milestone set by investors on time and under budget; expanded its Intellectual Property portfolio; and continues to broaden its research and development efforts with a growing team of accomplished and talented scientists.

The company has completed multiple, third-party independent validation studies and environmental testing of its platform technology for the rapid, on-site detection of E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter jejuni, and Salmonella enterica. It is now planning to apply for regulatory approval for multiple applications from the Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC International) for each of its respective tests. Performance Tested Certification from the AOAC is fully recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Union counterparts, and numerous global regulatory agencies. This application process will begin in late Fall 2011. Initial Alpha and Beta trials are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2011 now that preliminary environmental testing of the product has been successfully completed.

To support its diagnostic platforms and bolster its core capability in rapid diagnostics, the company has developed support technologies. It also has successfully brought in-house many aspects of development—including animal immunizations, monoclonal antibody development assay development and manufacturing, raw material processing, and bacterial antigen processing and preparation.

Monoclonal antibodies are integral to pathogen recognition systems. The company’s ability to develop its own custom monoclonal antibodies avoids the need to purchase and license them from third parties. More importantly, however, it gives Invisible Sentinel an innovative edge in developing novel diagnostic technologies. Indicative of Invisible Sentinel’s forward-thinking expertise, the company was selected by the USDA and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to travel to China as part of a U.S. envoy of experts to introduce rapid diagnostics technologies that could drastically improve food safety in China’s massive food chain. Invisible Sentinel has an expanding Intellectual Property portfolio that already includes four patent-pending applications in both U.S. and foreign marketplaces. These applications cover the core technology as well as the various technology platforms. The company is in the process of achieving its quality management ISO9001:2008 certification by the International Organization for Standardization and expects the process to be completed by the end of 2011.