Examples of what nine different viruses look like.
Biology Laboratory
Scene in a typical biology laboratory.
Double-Stranded RNA
Our compound is triggered by attaching to long segments of double-stranded RNA, which is only produced by viruses.
Cats
Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) is caused by a mutant strain of
Feline Coronavirus (FCoV), which is 100% fatal in cats unless effectively treated.
In Vivo Testing
An important development goal is in vivo testing, normally in either mice or hamsters.
Pigs
Several viruses have been responsible for massive health problems in pigs,
which have resulted in the culling of entire herds in China and elsewhere. It's also
possible for some viruses to jump from pigs to humans (such as Swine Flu).
Well Plates
Well plates like this are used for in vitro testing of our compound's effectiveness
and toxicity.
VTose
Our compound helps protect against viral infection and disease.
Cattle
Viral diseases affect livestock, too.
Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) alone causes economic losses of
hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rick Kiessig
Rick Kiessig, Co-Founder.
Rick has been an entrepreneur and software architect for more than 40 years. He has published research in areas as diverse as
biology and satellite software, and has a background in biochemistry, organic chemistry and complex project management.
He's written software that's flown to Mars three times and on several other near and deep space missions.
He's the primary author of five patents, and has had a software-oriented book published. He owned and operated a
small business in Silicon Valley for about 20 yrs, and has worked with about a dozen startups.
Rick moved to New Zealand in 2006. His hobbies include ham radio and asteroid tracking.
Phil Oliver
Phil Oliver, Co-Founder.
Phil has been a self-taught programmer and software architect/engineer for about 40 years,
working on a wide variety of software projects, including many engineering related ones.
He has a lifelong interest in science and engineering and earned a degree in Biomedical
Engineering in 2012. He designed and created multiple historical research tools on
American Indian history and the American Civil War which were very widely used and
facilitated historical research which resulted in new book publications by various authors.
He's seen the potential of DRACO (now VTose) for years and was disappointed that it never
received the attention that it deserved, and is happy to finally be working to turn that
potential into actual working reality.