Two electrochemists. One $1.50 hack. A diagnostic platform that could go anywhere.

Prof. Conor Hogan published a breakthrough mobile diagnostics idea in 2011 without patenting it. Someone called him an idiot. He never forgot it.

Years later, he did it right — secured the patent, landed a multinational licensing deal, spent five years developing a smartphone-based wine sulphite test. Then the company walked away. The IP came back to La Trobe. What felt like a gut punch turned out to be a free shot on goal.

That's when Dr. Saimon Silva showed up — a Brazilian electrochemist with the manufacturing instincts Conor didn't know he was missing. Together they founded Eolas DX, built on a simple insight: the audio codec in every smartphone can do the same work as a $20,000 lab instrument, for $1.50.

Wine testing first. Heavy metals, roadside drug tests, and disease biomarkers next. The mission: accurate diagnostics, everywhere, for anyone.