3M Enters Development and Licensing Agreement with Lumora

3M (St Paul, MN, USA) has entered into a joint development and licensing deal for use of Lumora's (Ely, United Kingdom) Bioluminescent Assay in Real-Time (BART) technology in developing nucleic acid test kits.

BART is a novel reporter system designed for use with isothermal nucleic acid amplification technologies as a tool in molecular diagnostics. The simplicity of BART enables easy-to-use, affordable, robust hardware to be used. This is a major break-through as molecular diagnostics is typically associated with complex and expensive hardware.

The technology is simple to implement because BART causes the sample itself to emit light when a test result is positive. This eliminates the need for additional, highly sensitive light detection apparatus.

Lumora said that it is looking for other collaborative development and licensing partnerships "to bring its core technology to market in industrial sectors and clinical in vitro diagnostic applications." The company, a spin out of Cambridge University, is now targeting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-related business in India and Africa.

Dr Laurence Tisi, CEO and cofounder of Lumora said that the company has three focus areas for the Bart technology: diagnostics for low resource settings, digital diagnostics, and detection of enteric disease-causing organisms such a Clostridium difficile and Norovirus.

3M is a leader in technology development, and produces products for many diverse markets including health care.

Lumora capabilities include bioinformatics, primer design, test optimization, test evaluation, protocol optimization, reagent stabilization, and scale-up guidance. Lumora has microbiology experts in-house and facilities to deal with many common pathogens.

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