Frank Kochinke, PhD

Brief Summary

Frank has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Technische Universität, Berlin. His dissertation: "The Fractionation of Human Plasma Proteins with Membranes". He received his Master's in Physics from Freie Universität, Berlin and his thesis: "The Ultrafiltration of Blood and Plasma with Porous Capillary Membranes". Here he made first contact with blood constituents, like fibrinogen and fibrin, critical proteins in the blood coagulation process, that are also the main players, in a particular one of their degradation products (D-Dimer) in the Aprimus test *see SEM Picture below).

Utilizing his scientific and research knowledge gained in academia, he contunied spending the majority of his career in the medical field developing a variety of treatment concepts and products. Mass transport through diffusional barriers (synthetic and biological, e.g. skin or mucosa) and the Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes are the theoretical building blocks for his patented ideas. While in Germany, the focus of his R&D was geared towards blood purification systems (implanatable artificial kidney, LDL apherese, etc.). When he moved to Palo Alto, CA he specialized in Advanced Drug Delivery (ADD) product development. 

He was intrumental in founding several pharmaceutical companies that specialize in ADD ranging from transdermal therapeutic systems and intraoral/transmucosal products to biodegradable implants that are injected into the patient's eye. Other medical products are related to diabetes diagnostics (first non-invasive blood glucose monitoring system, see below), wound healing (using Antartic Krill Enzymes to facilitate the treatment of non-healing wounds), mucositis (cancer treatment induced damages to oral mucosa), etc.

His last pharmaceutical startup Mycrodose Therapeutics (MDT) was founded with the focus on delivering psychedelic API's in the context of Mental Health treatment. MDT won several rewards at the Wonderland Conference, Miami 2021. The work with the very potent psychedelic API's triggered his interest in having independent and invidividual diagnostics tools and the ability to monitor treatment progress. To accomplish that, among other goals, Aprimus was formed.