Innovative Biosensors Develops Rapid Diagnostics System With Progentech

Innovative Biosensors, Inc. (Rockville, MD, USA) and ProGenTech Limited (Emeryville, CA, USA) will jointly develop a rapid, integrated diagnostic system. Innovative Biosensors will commercialize the developed product. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The system will incorporate Innovative Biosensors' Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields (CANARY) technology, a cell-based approach for quickly detecting pathogens, into a modified version of ProGenTech's Entura Lite platform with integrated optical detection capabilities.

The CANARY technology consists of engineered biosensors expressing membrane-bound, pathogen specific antibodies, and a calcium sensitive bioluminescent molecule. Cross-linking of the antibodies by minute amounts of the specific pathogen leads to elevation of intracellular calcium and light emission. The amplified light output is detected by a luminometer.

Joe Hernandez, the president and CEO of Innovative Biosensors, said "We believe that having more rapid, highly sensitive assays and fully integrated systems is of immense value to the clinical diagnostic market. The combinations of our two technologies will achieve this panacea. We look forward to working with ProGenTech in revolutionizing this very important market," said Dr. Trevor Hawkins, chairman & CEO of ProGenTech.

ProGenTech developed workflow automation solutions around its Entura Lite platform and the cassette-based approach. All reagents for RNA, DNA, protein, and cell-based applications are pre-loaded into a cassette. The user adds samples to the cassettes, loads the cassettes into the system, presses play, and walks away.

Innovative Biosensors, Inc. is a privately held company developing novel technologies for the rapid detection of pathogens in human clinical diagnostics and biodefense applications.

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Innovative Biosensors, Inc.
ProGenTech Limited