Was VGI helped by having a hardware starting point rather than a chemistry starting point?
I would say the two are interdependent. The chemistry is very much dependent on the knowledge of the target. In other words, the chemistry can’t be done in a vacuum without understanding the virology, the mutation patterns, the specific genetic regions on the virus, and how they mutate. The art of the chemistry and building the primers is to understand which areas of the virus are relevant and conserved in the replication process of the virus so that the start of the reaction can be built there. So the chemistry and the virology are interdependent, and they have to be developed together. One of the key strengths that has helped us significantly is having a very large and active software group. Ultimately, the report is the product, and if someone were to start with an instrument technology and then try to figure out down the road how to do the software, that would add a lot of time to the development process. The key is being able to bring all of the elements together at the same time,
