바이오스펙테이터

바이오스펙테이터 Joungmin Cho 기자

The Wave Talk Inc. has created a technology to detect bacteria in food, water, and the environment in real-time. The company’s name, “The Wave Talk”, implies that wavelength is always telling us something. This biosensor technology provides an innovative solution to fight food-borne and water-borne diseases caused by bacterial infection. The company also aims to provide real-time data for human body’s microbiome.

In an interview with The Biospectator, Young-Dug Kim (CEO) said, "So far, bacteria inspection has been available only to specialists. But now, anyone can instantly detect bacteria anywhere, anytime. Our target markets are food industry (Food-care), domestic appliance (Home-care), and healthcare.”

Bacteria are a few micrometers in length. They can be found any place where life exists. Bacteria live inside and outside of living organisms. They exist not only in soil, water, and air, but also inside our body such as at intestine, causing fermentation or decay. Instantly detecting bacteria is important, particularly for the food industry during importation, distribution, and manufacturing, as well as for healthcare sectors.

The Wave Talk has successfully developed a biosensor using 'Time-Reversal Mirror (TRM)’ technology. TRM technology is studied and developed by Yong-Keun Park, the head of advisor of The Wave Talk and a professor from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). TRM is developed to interpret signals existing in real life in their original state. There have been many attempts to achieve TRM using non-linear laser optics. However, such optics requires additional incident laser beam in extremely controlled experimental environment. Therefore, commercialization of TRM using non-linear laser optics was impossible.

Park has found a way to commercialize TRM technology by using optimized optical system. This technology generates a parallel state by adjusting angles of incidence and reflection. With Park’s method of TRM, an additional laser is unnecessary and TRM can be achieved even in noisy environment.

In his experiment, Park tested TRM in different types of medium. However, only when TRM was tested on chicken breast repeatedly, perfect TRM results became inconsistent as time passed. He realized that it was the bacteria that grew on chicken breast that was interfering with scattering light pathways, causing the results to change constantly.

From this finding, The Wave Talk developed a biosensor to instantly detect the presence of bacteria by analyzing time-lapse light patterns.

The Wave Talk’s first target market is food industry (Food-care). Global food industry’s average market is around $6 trillion, of which food safety industry accounts for $4 billion (http://intelligence.canadean.com). U.S. and Europe have the largest food industry market, closely followed by China. According to Kim, The Wave Talk has developed an IoT biosensor system that can be installed at food or water processing lines to monitor the presence of bacteria in real-time. “Our first goal is to establish trust with the food industry market in the form of B2B,” Kim explained. He further said, “Through miniaturization and modularization, the IoT biosensor system will be adapted to domestic appliance (Home-care) such as water purifiers. Currently, our sensor can be used on liquid medium. We are developing a product that can be installed on a water purifier to monitor water quality."

The Wave Talk’s final and ultimate goal is to enter the healthcare market. Current technology can be improved to detect and monitor bacteria that lives inside human intestines. Anyone can monitor changes in their own gut microbiome in real-time. Results will be saved in their personal database. Kim explained, "Our goal is to create a biosensor that can be used by anyone, anywhere to pro-actively prevent mental or physical diseases by monitoring personal microbiome, which is a significant factor to a person’s health."

In recognition of its technological potential and marketability, The Wave Talk was selected to receive matching R&D funds from Tech Incubator Program for Startup (TIPS) program last year. They also acquired the largest investment from Naver’s D2 Startup Factory in April 2017. The Wave Talk is also receiving great interests from foreign companies in Switzerland and Thailand. They are laying a continuous groundwork for future cooperation.

According to Kim, The Wave Talk is planning to establish joint ventures overseas to overcome financial and human limitations as a start-up company. “We are looking for a local company as a joint-venture to localize the market and trade area. After that, we may remain as a shareholder to distribute the profit”, Kim added.

In addition, The Wave Talk plans to create a comprehensive bacterial map by acquiring data from each country as a form of back-up centers. This bacterial map can be linked to personal healthcare networks.

Kim stated, "The biosensor system we developed has a totally different concept from the conventional method. Currently existing inspection system is focused on specialization and precision. However, we are focused on utilization of the device so that anyone can use it anytime, anywhere.” Kim wants The Wave Talk’s biosensor to become a game changer that has a great potential to expand to the integrative industry of microbiomes and healthcare.

Kim’s vision for The Wave Talk is "We have a dream to become a Unicorn (an unlisted start-up company worth more than 1s trillion Korean Won), which is very rare for domestic start-ups."