3D-printed swabs to fight COVID!
There’s a shortage of swabs to test for COVID-19. Not enough people are getting tested, and without that info we cannot flatten the curve!
To help, Neurophotometrics has pivoted to design new swabs and we are now ready to scale way up and move to market, but we need your support. Our goal is to scale-up to at least 20,000 swabs per day immediately.
We are a small start-up with a passion for neuroscience, but at this critical time, we decided to do more with our 3D printers than printing microscopes!
Millions of swabs are needed per day, and until we have them, we will not be able to properly understand this disease and make informed policy decisions.
The faster hospitals can test for COVID-19, the faster we can all get answers and go back to doing the things we love, like going outside and hugging friends!
We are producing swabs for immediate use AND making the manufacturing procedures open source, so hospitals and academic institutions can make their own too!
We have already had requests for swabs from hospitals across the United States - totaling a need for more than 100,000 ASAP!!
Why we need you: We want to do everything in our power to help hospitals get the swabs they need ASAP - this means we need to front the costs TODAY, but we are a start-up with limited funds.
Some of the costs we have to pay today:
1) Front the payments of all necessary supplies (including the 3D filament, rayon, labels, packaging etc) = $14,000.
2) Automated packaging equipment (heat sealer, label maker) = $8K.
3) Pay our people (and bring on more!) who work tirelessly around the clock = $107,000.
4) Rent production space! = $10k
5) Pay our varied legal support team to ensure we bring this new product to market safely and rapidly! = $40,000.
6) Continue product development (working with engineers to build machinery to automate production and increase capacity + pursue additional product certifications) = $100K
EVERYTHING you give goes to fighting COVID-19!
Any unused funds will be used to donate swabs and/or to help developing countries also hit by the COVID-19 pandemic set up swab manufacturing facilities of their own.
Any amount helps. Please share this link and tell your friends. Together we can flatten the curve!
Help us save lives today with a donation.
To learn more about who we are and what we do, please visit https://swab56.com/ or https://neurophotometrics.com/swabs/
The Neurophotometrics and Swab56 teams thank you! Pictured below: our very responsibly socially-distanced, masked, and sleep-deprived team! #SmallBusinessRelief
(This GoFundMe is organized by Dr. Veronica Pessino, a Senior Scientist with Neurophotometrics - the funds raised will be withdrawn by beneficiary Dr. Sage Aronson, the CEO of Neurophotometrics and Swab56.)
