Acrongenomics and Molecular Vision present an R+D update of their joint collaboration, following the meeting of the project's steering committee on 28 July 2006 at Molecular Vision's site in London
Acrongenomics and Molecular Vision envisage accelerating the development and commercialisation of low-cost, easy-to-use and readily portable point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices.
Initial devices will enable personalised on-the-spot monitoring for diabetes management and diagnosis of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), cardiovascular diseases and substances of abuse, based on the unique BioLED technology platform.
Molecular Vision has been recently transferred its facilities to the new Imperial Bio-Incubator Centre at Imperial College London.
The facilities are dedicated to state-of-the art laboratories and offices.
Molecular Vision has established all relevant administration procedures at its new site, and has appointed two full time principal scientists to the project, with respective expertise in microfluidics and OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes).
The company is seeking to recruit three more people by the end of September, including a microfluidic assay scientist, a microfluidic clinical technician and a device fabrication engineer.
Currently, the two companies are making good progress in the development of the generic BioLED platform.
The first phase of this work is aimed at developing POC prototypes for diabetes management and diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases.
In the past two months a modeling software system for BioLED technology has been developed in order to identify the optimal configuration for high sensitivity detection.
The present steps include the development of appropriate devices, OLEDs, PDs (photodetectors) and filters, allowing the detection of reference analytes already existing in the market at the sub-micromolar level.
The first photodetector demonstration is planned for the end of March 2007.
In parallel, studies for the development and fabrication of microfluidic structures for handling blood will take place.
Acrongenomics envisions the completion of the first phase of these studies towards the end of December 2006.
This partnership between Acrongenomics and Molecular Vision will establish a world-class technology and will offer an unprecedented range of POC applications to the medical diagnostics sector, say the companies.
Molecular Vision's patented powerful technologies of microfluidics and organic semiconductor devices (light emitting diodes and photodetectors) have the potential to become a de-facto standard for medical testing, since they are based on the novel BioLED technology which allows for the development of true readily portable POC devices.
POC technologies are shaping a new era of personalised diagnosis, in which predisposition to a disease is detected at an earlier stage and treatment is tailored to the patient's individual needs.
Personalised medicine encompasses in vitro diagnostics to assess disease risk, identify and characterise disease, monitor patients for disease onset and progression, select therapy and evaluate therapeutic response.
The ability offered by BioLED technology to perform accurate and fast diagnosis at first consultation will reduce the need for patients' repeated visits to hospitals/GPs, thereby bringing forward the initiation of treatment, freeing up clinical time and lowering treatment costs.
