Micro Imaging Technology, Inc. (MIT) has developed and patented the MIT 1000, a Microbial Identification System that revolutionizes the pathogenic bacteria diagnostic process and can annually save thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars in health care costs. This technology will identify bacteria in minutes at a significantly lower cost per test compared to conventional methods.
Jeffrey Nunez, MIT's Chairman and CEO, stated, "This press release is to provide an update concerning our achievements over the past year and a look ahead for 2013."
We received significant financial backing from our newest Board member, Gregg Newhuis, and others, allowing us to concentrate all of our efforts on moving our technology and marketing strategy forward.
We dramatically improved our balance sheet by reducing the amount of debt accumulated over the past three years -- 2012 shows more than a 65% decrease in liabilities over the previous fiscal year.
We substantially increased our lab capacity and operations, as well as our calculational capacity, over the past nine months which will ultimately allow us to more rapidly increase the number of pathogen identifiers in the MIT 1000 library.
We submitted applications to the Association of Advanced Communities Research Institute (AOAC RI) for Performance Test Method Certification for the MIT 1000 for the identification of the pathogens E. coli and Salmonella.
We invested thousands in production design with our Hawthorne, California-based manufacturing partner, OSI Optoelectronics -- and received our first three commercial, ready-for-sale MIT 1000 systems in November 2012.
We announced in December receipt of U.S. Patent Office approval for our new trademark Micro Identification Technologies® under which we plan to market the MIT 1000. We invested a great deal of time and dollars last year on our new branding -- our new logo, enhanced website and marketing materials.
We also invested a great deal of time, effort and dollars in our intellectual property security and proprietary software technology this past year.
"Have we hit every mark," Nunez asks rhetorically. "Of course not, obviously. We are disappointed that we are not further along in the AOAC certification process on E. coli and Salmonella. But we've done it in proof-of-principle testing so we know it will happen, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And we're very optimistic that will be this year," he stated. Nunez continued, "Perhaps one of our greatest and most important achievements this past year has been the development of our MIT 1000 software infrastructure. This has significantly improved our ability to maintain and protect sensitive data while simplifying our customers' access to our primary product: our identifiers. This advance ensures that the keys to our technology kingdom remain safely in our hands, securing and safeguarding our proprietary technology."
"Meanwhile," Nunez added, "we haven't been sitting on our hands. We have participated in many relevant trade shows this past year and made numerous valuable contacts in the food safety arena. These contacts have already generated interest from prominent testing laboratories and university research programs interested in collaborative endeavors. Discussions are in the very early formative stages, but we intend to consider every opportunity available to enhance our business and growth strategy. We believe that 2013 is going to be a very exciting year for MIT."