Clinical, Medical & Diagnostic Products


Grant Supports Development of Porcine Lung Disease Diagnostic


ProtonDx Ltd, an Imperial College health technology spin-out company delivering cost-effective, ultra-rapid, accurate and portable molecular testing, has been awarded a £365,000 grant from Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme and UKRI’s Transforming Food Production Challenge (Innovate UK) to develop rapid, accurate, point-of-care tests for porcine lung diseases, in collaboration with Imperial College London.


Porcine lung infections, including Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex (PRDC), are caused by bacteria, viruses, or a combination of both. Currently such infections are controlled by a combination of antibiotics, vaccinations, and good animal husbandry and other livestock management practices. However, many infections are becoming increasingly resistant to available antibiotics, and there is a lack of effective vaccines for most pathogens.


Working closely with livestock farmers, the UK’s Animal Plant Health Agency and industry experts, the development team at ProtonDx will be using the automated diagnostic platform to enable the detection of major porcine bacterial and viral lung pathogens. The work will be carried out in collaboration with Imperial College London’s Oliver Stringer, Research Postgraduate and Professor Paul Langford, Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases. The industry experts and animal health specialists will be providing samples, resources, and time.


ProtonDx’s automated ‘lab-on-a-chip’ diagnostic platform has been designed to automate pathogen detection and differentiate multiple pathogens simultaneously with confidence. From a simple swab with minimal handling, high quality nucleic acids are automatically extracted and analysed using proprietary LAMP-based technology. This molecular diagnostic platform validates that the sample has been taken and tested correctly and results are automatically uploaded to the cloud to facilitate track-and-trace.


The goal of developing these tests is to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases amongst livestock, specifically pigs, across the global farming and food community. In 2021 the number of pigs in China, EU, US and Brazil exceeded 675 million and this number is growing substantially year on year. This is an area of high unmet need with significant clinical and economic impact. The grant is part of £8 million UK-based fund aimed at assessing new farming concepts announced 9 June 2022 as part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme.


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/O2mD 58961pr@reply-direct.com


Rapid PCR Test for E. cuniculi Diagnosis in Domestic Rabbits


Horiba UK Veterinary announces the addition of an Encephalitozoon cuniculi (E. cuniculi) test to its in-house PCR range of rapid veterinary diagnostic tests for the POCKIT Central analyser. This further expands the number of available tests to nearly 200, which already includes viruses, bacteria, parasites and protozoa for companion animal and farm species. Delivering fast and accurate results in just 85 minutes, Horiba’s veterinary PCR analyser can support better patient management to enable correct treatment earlier.


E. cuniculi is a microsporidian parasite with worldwide distribution that may infect various species of mammals, including humans, and most commonly domestic rabbits. Infection may not be detected for some time, and predominantly impacts the nervous system and kidneys. Affected animals may show neurological signs, including paralysis, seizures and head tilt; renal insufficiency; and ocular disorders. Antiparasitic treatment can be effective, however, not all cases will fully recover or will sadly not survive an infection if treated too late.


Paul Lymer, Horiba’s Veterinary Business Manager said: “We are pleased to offer the capability of PCR testing to all practitioners, with a simple process that does not require a separate area, specialist staff or facilities. With the continued addition of rapid assays such as E. cuniculi to its wide range of tests, POCKIT Central’s ‘sample in, result out’ technology enables veterinary teams to work more efficiently and enhance patient care.”


With a footprint of just 31 x 48cm, the POCKIT Central is a highly user-friendly system that completely automates the PCR testing process for up to eight pathogens in one run. It is so easy to set up that a laboratory can be up and running within 30 minutes with staff training provided. Ideally suited


to veterinary practices, the POCKIT Central ensures confident diagnostic and case management decision making without needing to wait for external laboratory results. More information online: ilmt.co/PL/G2g9


58853pr@reply-direct.com


Automated Pipetting Solutions for MicroRNA-based Diagnostics


MiRXES, a biotechnology company based in Singapore, is relying on a range of Integra pipetting systems to increase the speed and precision of its RT-qPCR workflows. Adam Chiow, Senior Research Officer at MiRXES, explained: “We are using a proprietary RT-qPCR technology platform - ID3EAL™ - to identify new microRNA biomarkers and develop diagnostic kits for the early identification of cancer and infectious diseases. We therefore routinely perform RT-qPCR on microRNAs extracted from patient samples, and use the Integra VOYAGER adjustable tip spacing pipette to effortlessly transfer samples between 96 and 384 well formats. The automatically adjustable channels of these pipettes fit our workflow perfectly.”


“We are also developing a new kit which will be able to determine the levels of different microRNAs in a person’s body. For this assay we load several samples into a 96-well column format, then we use Integra’s ASSIST PLUS pipetting robot, together with the VOYAGER, to load the samples onto the assay plate in a protected environment. The VIALAB pipette automation software allows us to program the SOP into the pipette, so the steps are carried out the same way every time. Automating the workflow in this way cuts down on manpower needed to run the assay, and ensures that the samples are loaded accurately and reproducibly. This removes the chance of human error affecting the PCR results. One person is able to complete the plate, seal it, and load it into the PCR machine in the same amount of time that it takes for the PCR machine to analyse a plate, making it an almost continuous process.”


More information online: ilmt.co/PL/qMZV 58813pr@reply-direct.com


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