An Interview with Dr Paul Desmond Slowey, CEO and Founder, Oasis Diagnostics, USA.
1.The path of saliva research and diagnostics have always been challenging. What was your motivation behind initiating Oasis Diagnostics as a company?
After working for the two pioneers in the area of saliva testing / oral fluid diagnostics, I felt there were gaps that were not being addressed by the technologies of the two companies. My overall goal was to improve diagnosis of diseases using the least invasive specimen available- saliva – in the hope that we could improve and hopefully save lives.
2. Is there any specific significance for the name of your company?
The Company was originally called Bamburgh Marrsh LLC and when I bought out a former business partner I needed a new name for the Company. e needed a name that was synonymous with fluids / water. When you think of an Oasis you think of a haven in the desert where you can become replenished with water, so what better name for an oral fluid company at least this was my thinking behind it!
What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in your journey with saliva?
The biggest challenge I would say is in convincing many of the older generation of physicians / researchers that saliva is a viable alternative sample for diagnostic testing. Traditionalists have always believed that small concentrations of analytes could not easily be detected in saliva and this was true 10-15 years ago, but now due to more sensitive technologies including mass spectrometry, next generation sequencing, fluorescent methods including quantitative lateral flow, etc. detection of small salivary biomarker concentrations is not only possible but relatively straight-forward.
