Jonathan Rothberg
Analyst · Kyle Mikson of Canaccord Genuity
Thank you, Juan. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We're excited to discuss the progress that Quantum-Si has made over the last 2 months as we work to commercialize our single molecule protein sequencing system. To summarize, in 2021, we more than doubled our employee base. We took proactive measures to secure our supply chain. Some of the best scientists in the world are using our instruments, and we ended the year with over $470 million in cash on our balance sheet providing us with sufficient runway to continue investing in the business. In today's call, we will review the previously announced CEO transition, our unique value proposition, opportunities in immunology and long COVID, provide a business update, and present our fourth quarter full year financial performance and outlook for 2022. We will then open the lines for questions. Quantum-Si has created a new generation of semiconductor technology to pioneer and enable next-generation protein sequencing. The next great frontier after next-generation DNA sequencing. Next-generation DNA sequencing provides insights by decoding our DNA. Quantum-Si's next-generation protein sequencing by decoding proteins will unlock a new understanding of disease and illuminate paths to health. As reported on February 14, the Quantum-Si Board of Directors appointed me as Interim CEO. I come back to this role well prepared after founding the company in 2013 and previously serving as its CEO from December 2015 through November 2020. While I'm excited to be back leading this productive and experienced team, I am an interim CEO and along with our Board of Directors, have initiated the search for a long-term CEO. We are looking for a strategic leader who can inspire our scientists and engineers, understand the commercial opportunities in proteomics and execute exceptionally well, a leader with an extraordinary ability to inspire, motivate and execute to create products others can't. Deep insight into applications of protein sequencing in life science research and human health. Simply put, a leader who can own the fork in history our next-generation protein sequencing is poised to create. Under my interim leadership, our goal for 2022 is clear. To commercialize our next-generation protein sequencing platform, 2 years into the COVID-19 global pandemic, understanding basic biology and especially our immune system is more important than ever. Oncology drove the adoption of next-generation DNA sequencing and now immunology in COVID-19 are serving a catalyst for the commercial adoption of Quantum-Si's next-generation protein sequencing. To best position us for commercial success, we have established a new Scientific Advisory Board to identify high impact routine applications of single molecule protein sequencing across research, clinical and diagnostic applications. We are pleased to announce that the Scientific Advisory Board will be led by renowned immunologist, epidemiologist and current Board member, Dr. Michael Mina, formerly of Harvard T.H. Chan School and includes Dr. Antoine van Oijen, Director of Australian Molecular Horizons institute and formerly Harvard Medical School; and Dr. Andrew Griffiths of ESPCI in France. 2021 was a transformative year for the proteomics sector of the life science tools industry. Several companies entered the public market doing analog or semi-quantitative protein measurements. However, Quantum-Si stands apart as the only company seeking to commercialize digital or sequencing-based next-generation massively parallel protein sequencing. Similar to how DNA microarray companies enabled measurements of gene expression, these other proteomic companies are generally focused on measuring protein levels using affinity reagents to identify and try to quantify known proteins. These approaches are limited and that they only work on known proteins and are mostly blind to critical, functional and predictive protein modifications. Uniquely, Quantum-Si is focused on commercializing a system that enables protein sequencing to decode the linear sequence of amino acids and post-translational modifications that make up a protein and determine its function. Similar to how next-generation DNA sequencing transform genomics, single molecule protein sequencing is poised to change the way life science research is conducted. We studied DNA because we could. We studied DNA often as a surrogate for proteins, the machinery of life. Because methods for characterizing proteins have, until Quantum-Si, lagged behind those for DNA. Unlike DNA, proteins cannot be amplified. So our unique single molecule technology provides us with the ability to perform protein sequencing on the individual peptides or segments making up a protein. We describe this unique and powerful approach to massively parallel single molecule protein sequencing and a recent technical manuscript available in bioarchives. There is a tremendous opportunity for Quantum-Si to change the way we understand disease and as I've singled out immunology by putting protein sequencing on a semiconductor chip, Quantum-Si is poised to change the way life science research is conducted. Semiconductors bring with them the power of Moore's Law, in which the technology continues to improve exponentially while naturally reducing in cost. Many of Quantum-Si's employees work to bring Moore's law to DNA sequencing, changing medicine, agriculture and pathogen detection forever. In fact, it was our next-gen DNA sequencing technology developed at Ion Torrent that alerted the world to Omicron. While oncology drove the adoption of next-generation DNA sequencing, we believe that immunology, including our body's responses to COVID-19 will drive the adoption of next-generation protein sequencing. To elaborate on this, I would now like to invite Dr. Michael Mina to talk about the role and opportunity of Quantum-Si's single molecule protein sequencing in immunology.