The Anguillian Global Exclusive: On March 2, 2021, Terry Brady was issued US Patent #10,934,168 as the lead inventor for a means to ‘functionalise’ atomic particles to destroy infectious pathogens on contact. The patent is entitled, ‘Synthetic Multifaceted Halogenated, Functionalized Fullerenes for Microbiocidal Effects Employing Controlled Contact for Safe Therapeutic and Environmental Utility’.
Over the years, the Anguilla postal code and Internet domain ‘AI’ has been associated with ‘artificial intelligence’ and the cutting-edge technology shaping our world, from ‘training’ our Alexa and Siri devices, to our online experiences tailored with every keystroke. Now, with a US patent led by one of our naturalised citizens, ‘AI’ can also stand for ‘Anguilla Innovation’!
The ‘art’ encompasses prospective applications ranging from embedding such particles into personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers’ reusable masks, gowns and booties, to suspending them in extracorporeal blood filtration and pulmonary flushing solutions. The invention would impact pathogens below the microscopic realm, at the atomic level.
“Conjugating carbon and pure halogen molecules creates a chemical tip or ‘spear’ with extreme biocidal capabilities. However, the particles are far too small to interrupt or damage human tissue or cells, making them lethal for microbes but harmless to human tissue,” Mr. Brady explained.
Describing the concept further, Mr. Brady observed, “For example some 600 million red blood cells would be needed to fill a teaspoon, while nearly 600 thousand times as many SARS Cov2 coronaviruses would fill that space, some 350 trillion!” He added, “Another way to imagine it is to consider that the virus is 120 nanometers in size, and 42 quadrillion treated fullerenes would fill that same spoon at 1 nanometer each, enabling them to overwhelm the virions.”
In the context of the global pandemic declared on March 11, 2020, it is notable that the initial ‘provisional’ patent #63/013125 was filed so quickly, on April 21, 2020. Mr. Brady has often attributed his most creative thinking to walking the beach on Shoal Bay East. Having worked with his co-inventors for several years and sharing collective knowledge of nanomaterials, he soon envisioned a means to attack the virus ‘where it lives’ at an infinitesimal scale.
As its risks were described literally in the air, landing on surfaces and being inhaled at random, Mr. Brady proposed a novel approach to effectively sterilizing a surface and destroying the virus on contact as intellectual property worthy of protection. The US Patent and Trademark Office ultimately agreed and issued this patent.
Mr. Brady hopes to collaborate with academic institutions to develop applications and to seek corporate partnerships for their commercialisation going forward.
“Living here and being part of this community has always been an inspiration. I’m really proud that the official ‘location’ of this patent is ‘The Valley, AI’,” Mr. Brady noted. “Although I’m a naturalised Anguillian and US citizen, you don’t have to be a US citizen or have a big law firm to apply for a patent. We filed directly. I would gladly help explain the process to any aspiring students or inventors working on the next ‘Anguilla innovation’!” he concluded.
*United States Patent: Brady, et al; Patent Number: US 10,934,168; Date: March 2, 2021; Invention Location: The Valley, AI; Disclosure Date (Provisional Patent: April 21, 2020;
Patent Prosecution: pro se (no patent lawyer); Title: Synthetic Multifaceted Halogenated, Functionalized Fullerenes for Microbiocidal Effects Employing Controlled Contact for Safe Therapeutic and Environmental Utility
Editor’s Note: Terry Brady’s career spanned over 35 years of global sales, marketing, invention/entrepreneurship, and executive leadership. Seasoned by early positions in multi nationals, including Johnson & Johnson and Richardson Vicks (later purchased by Proctor and Gamble), Mr. Brady was the lead inventor on five earlier US patents on four products and numerous others with FDA-approval that remain in international commerce. He is a naturalised Anguillian and has been a full-time resident since 2002 with his wife, Melinda Goddard, who chronicled their island story in ‘One Way Ticket: From America to Anguilla’.
