Our first product, Topic-QX, was released in the Winter of 2010.  It is the world’s first topical antiseptic ointment based on quorum sensing disruption technology.  The product relies exclusively on a variety of plant extracts that have a 3,000 year history of effectiveness as traditional medicines for infections.  We have combined these extracts into a formula that disables and disrupts the quorum sensing systems of many pathogenic bacteria (see our research).  Quorum sensing disruption is a revolution in pathogenosis - for this technique does not rely on a standard antibiotic strategy, instead it confuses and interrupts effectual bacterial communications and renders them harmless.  Modern science and medicine is beginning to realize that the practice of attempting to kill all the bacteria is not an effective, sustainable solution - but jamming their communcation may be.

What is Quorum Sensing?

In the early 1970s it was discovered that bacteria possess the ability to communicate with one another. As more research was done it was discovered that chemical signaling molecules, called auto-inducers, produced by each individual bacterium, allow colonies of bacteria to regulate collective behavior. In effect, it allows a colony to function as a single organism. This process of communication is called quorum sensing.

The coordinated group behaviors regulated by quorum sensing are many and diverse. Movement, growth rates and the production of protective chemicals are three such examples. The regulation of virulence - the bacterial actions that cause disease, is another example. This is the function of quorum sensing that is of interest to us, and it is our main area of research.