A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
Innovative Biosensors (IBI; Rockville, Maryland) and American Type Culture Collection (ATCC; Manassas, Virginia) have teamed to develop a new test to detect Avian (HFN1) influenza virus, known as bird flu.
IBI said it will use the reagents with its molecular technology platform to develop a rapid and accurate diagnostic test. ATCC said it will provide IBI with what it terms "highly sensitive" monoclonal antibodies for H5N1 flu. The resultant product will be distributed through the IBI Environmental Group, further expanding the menu of assays, according to Richard Thomas, IBI president.
"IBI's biosensor technology platform allows development of accurate and sensitive diagnostic tests that yield results in minutes," said Cohava Gelber, PhD, chief scientific and technology officer of ATCC.
IBI develops rapid, ultra-sensitive tests designed to identify harmful pathogens. ATCC is a nonprofit biological resource center and research organization that acquires, authenticates, preserves, develops and distributes biological products for academic and industrial research.
In other agreement news:
• eResearchTechnology (Philadelphia) and nSpire Health (Longmont, Colorado) reported an alliance to provide integrated cardiac safety and pulmonary core lab services to clinical researchers worldwide.
eResearch provides centralized electrocardiographic (ECG), eClinical technology, ePRO, and other services to the pharma, biotech medical device and related industries. nSpire is a provider of respiratory clinical trials services, including cardiopulmonary exercise testing, high-definition pulmonary diagnostics systems, spirometry, and home monitoring.
nSpire Health and eRT will deliver a combined solution for cardio/pulmonary safety/efficacy services during clinical trials, ranging from project planning and set-up through study conduct, management, and data delivery for primary and secondary cardiac and respiratory clinical trial endpoints.
• ParagonDx (Morrisville, North Carolina), a provider of genetic diagnostics, reported an alliance with Inverson Genetic Diagnostics (Seattle).
Inverson will use ParagonDx's products to test patients to determine if they possess genetic traits shown to increase or decrease sensitivity to warfarin, a blood thinner used to prevent and treat blood clots.
Because warfarin dosing is related to an individual's genetic makeup, prospective testing should improve doctors' ability to tailor a patient's dose to their genetic makeup, ParagonDx said. Too much warfarin increases the chance of excessive bleeding while too little of the drug can lead to dangerous episodes of blood clotting, according to the company.
Before the alliance with ParagonDx, Iverson used a blood-based method for determining the correct warfarin dose. While that test was better than trial and error, the company said, it took two to three days to get results. The saliva-based test, using ParagonDx components, delivers results in the same day.
• Navigenics (Redwood Shores, California), a genetic health services company, reported a new study of genetic predisposition analysis with Mayo Clinic (Rochester, New York). The study will examine how patients understand and use information provided by a Navigenics genetic risk assessment, the company said. Navigenics and Mayo are running the study jointly.
The research addresses genetic assessments and the impact of such information on preventive health decisions. Titled "A Proof of Principal Trial of Communication to Patients Receiving Predictive Genetic Risk Assessment," the study runs through September 2009.
• Luna Innovations (Roanoke, Virginia) reported that the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Maryland) has selected its MRI contrast agent candidate for preclinical characterization by the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL), a knowledge base for cancer researchers. NCL performs and standardizes the preclinical characterization of nanomaterials intended for therapeutics and diagnostics.