Bespoke development of bioassay detectors for different use cases such as small size, low cost, high sensitivity

It is critical for biological assays to have a detector with “necessary and sufficient” functions. This is true both to accelerate the assay development and to develop a commercial POCT (Point-Of-Care Testing) product around the assay for primary care or home use.

It is often that OTS (Off-The-Shelf) instruments are not the optimal option. They either have a hefty price tag, or not customised to specific requirements, or not compact, economical and robust enough as a commercial POCT product.

Funded by an award from the UK Government, a small Cambridge-based company has developed an end to end solution for POCT, a versatile platform that can be modified to enable assays to be developed quicker, to build repeatable and scalable experiments. This will improve efficiencies, speed up development time and maximise cost efficiencies. Please see the pictures. Note the small footprint: a bespoke necessary design usually allows for much smaller devices than the commercial ones, which is one of the key drivers for point-of-care diagnosis.

With the platform design and rigorous engineering, their technologies provide solutions requiring high spatial multiplexing, high sensitivity and low cost. Their performance has been demonstrated to work with microfluidics cartridges, strips and vials in assays like immunoassays and molecular diagnostics.

The technologies are developed through a systematic optimisation process to minimise noise, maximise signal, and simplify architecture. This results in a design with minimal cost, robust performance and manufacturability.

The platform can be rapidly optimised and prototyped to tailor for varied specifications. All the development processes are carried out in regulatory framework if required.

The UK company seek industry and academia who are in the process of designing and industrialising novel bioassays, not just from the marker point of view but also the use case i.e. small footprint, lower cost. The UK company can handle the hardware side from scratch to the point of manufacturing. The collaboration may include research and technical cooperation (including collaborative R&D funding bids) or commercial agreements with technical assistance.