Rhinostics Features New RHINObot Automated Decapper at MEDICA 2022

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 15 Nov 2022

Image: Team Rhinostics at MEDICA 2022 (Photo courtesy of Rhinostics)

Rhinostics Inc. (Waltham, MA, USA) is participating at this year’s MEDICA in Düsseldorf, Germany where it is showcasing the new RHINObot decapper instrument that enables laboratories to transit to hands-free swab and other sample workflows in order to bring efficiencies, labor cost savings, reproducibility and reliability for robotic workflows that truly link sample in to test results out.

Rhinostics has partnered with LVL technologies GmbH (Crailsheim, Germany) to launch the RHINObot, a customized version of LVL’s successful decapper instrument that enables both the RHINOstic and VERIstic automated collection devices to offer a complete solution for hands-free sample-in to result-out workflows. The combined solution increases sample throughput while reducing labor requirements, decreasing turnaround times, and bringing consistency, efficiencies and cost savings to laboratories testing with swab and small-volume blood collection devices. By combining the Rhinostics’ sample collection device ingenuity with decapper technology, laboratories can benefit from an instantly scalable automated swab and small volume blood collection processing workflow. Automation breaks through manual bottlenecks during capping and recapping steps so that laboratories can increase throughput and consistency while also decreasing cumbersome steps as well as reagent and labor costs.

As part of the partnership, the RHINObot has been optimized for use with the RHINOstic Automated Swab – a patent-pending sample collection device that integrates a unique polypropylene-based swab with an automatable cap. Nasal, buccal, or vaginal samples may be comfortably collected in a clinical setting or easily self-collected as part of an at-home test kit. After collection, the swab is securely screwed into a small, barcoded transport tube. This transport tube may be shipped without use of viral transport or other media to reduce reagent costs as well as risks of leaking, accidental biohazard exposure, and potential PCR interference due to VTM or other media components. Dry shipment also enables greater sample concentrations to boost confidence in sensitive PCR, next generation sequencing (NGS), ELISA methods, even at very low pathogen levels. Once in the laboratory, samples may be loaded onto the RHINObot for automated decapping and capping of up to 96 samples in less than one minute. This hands-free workflow eliminates user variability and reduces labor time by up to 80+% to significantly decrease per-test costs.

“Today, researchers, clinicians, and patients alike expect more when it comes to sample collection and diagnostic workflows from respiratory pathogens, sexually transmitted infections, genetic testing to cancer biomarkers and much more,” explained Cheri Walker, PhD, President and CEO of Rhinostics. “We’re excited to expand our partnership with LVL, our supplier of high-quality collection tubes to Rhinostics during the pandemic and beyond. The companies have enjoyed a close relationship, and we can now offer a full solution for our customers by launching a customized version of LVL’s robust decapper instrument to the market.”

“We are extremely pleased to expand our partnership with Rhinostics,” said Martin von Lueder, Chief Executive Officer of LVL. “We have watched Rhinostics bring industry changing, purpose-built sample collection devices that are automation-enabled to the market. The LVL decapper instrument is the perfect complement to their consumables, allowing improvements to inefficient swab and blood collection workflows. Additionally, we look forward to offering the Rhinostics products to our customers.”

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