Microbiologics Acquires Phthisis Diagnostics, New Direction Exhibited at Current Meeting of the Association for Molecular Pathology

Phthisis Diagnostics (Charlottesville, VA, USA) has announced its acquisition by Microbiologics (St. Cloud, MN, USA) to establish Phthisis’ technology as the foundation for a new division at Microbiologics.

Pthisis’ patented “G-Sphere” molecular standards product line will be the foundation for Microbiologics’ launch into molecular products and for the new division it is forming. G-Sphere standards are synthetic genes that provide easy-to-use, safe, stable, consistent, and abundant controls for virtually any organism or molecular assay. Currently, Microbiologics produces an array of lyophilized microorganism products in convenient, ready-to-use formats for quality control of microbiological testing.

Crystal Icenhour, PhD, adjunct assistant professor of infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center, and President and Chief Science Officer at Phthisis since 2006, along with her research team, created the new technology. She will serve as an advisor with Microbiologics during the adoption of Phthisis’ technology and development of their new division. “We introduced this product line about a year ago to provide much needed quality control standards to molecular laboratories. I am pleased that this longer established company will have the structure to take these products much further than our smaller company could have,” said Prof. Icenhour.

Brad Goskowicz, Microbiologics CEO, commented, “These innovative molecular standards will lay the foundation for Microbiologics to design and launch a broad collection of molecular products and custom services. It will expand our range of biomaterials to include viruses and other hard to grow microorganisms.”

Microbiologics is adding Brian Beck, PhD in bacteriology, to its senior management team as Vice President of Molecular Products and Services. Dr. Beck has spent the last ten years at ATCC in Virginia where he managed the Microbiology Collection and Associated BioServices. “I’m quite excited to extend what Microbiologics has done with their culture business and bring that same practical, user-friendly format to the molecular diagnostic business,” said Dr. Beck.

To commence their new initiative, Microbiologics is exhibiting at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) annual meeting, November 14-16, 2013, Phoenix (Arizona, USA).

Related Links:
Phthisis Diagnostics
Microbiologics