A Diagnostics & Imaging Week
MicroFluidic Systems (MFSI; Pleasanton, California) reported receiving a new $2 million dollar contract by the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Homeland Security to develop an Instantaneous Biological Agent Detection System (IBADS).
The goal is to develop an "extremely fast" system to confirm the presence of suspected airborne biological agents. MFSI will be applying its microfluidic and microdevice expertise to develop a flow-through IBADS system able to confirm the identity of suspected biological agents in five minutes or less.
Coupled with its ongoing contract with HSARPA for the development of an autonomously operating networked bioagent detection system and its stand-alone laboratory sample processing instruments, including the Biolyser, MFSI offers solutions to biological agent detection, the applications including homeland security, biodefense, diagnostics, environmental and industrial monitoring, forensics, and research.
MFSI personnel have been involved with the development of automated DNA-based pathogen detection systems and microfluidics for the U.S. Government and commercial markets for more than 10 years, it said, including the first miniaturized, portable, battery-operated, real-time, polymerase-chain-reaction-based system.
In other grants/contracts news:
SourceOne Healthcare Technologies (Mentor, Ohio), a distributor of medical imaging systems, equipment and radiographic consumable, and iCAD (Nashua, New Hampshire), a provider of computer-aided detection (CAD) solutions for the early identification of cancer, reported signing a two-year national distribution agreement.
SourceOne will continue to distribute iCAD's Second Look film-based mammography CAD systems in the U.S. The Second Look systems are compatible with all digital and film-based mammography systems. Since October of 2003, SourceOne has sold iCAD as its only offering in the CAD category and has shipped more than 100 Second Look systems.
Clarient (San Juan Capistrano, California), a cancer diagnostics services and technology company, and DakoCytomation (Glostrup, Denmark), a provider of cancer diagnostics and automated equipment, jointly reported a five-year distribution and development agreement. DakoCytomation will distribute Clarient's digital cellular imaging and analysis system, called the Chromavision Automated Cellular Imaging System (ACIS), as an adjunct to DakoCytomation's suite of automated diagnostics equipment.
The agreement, first unveiled June 9, enables DakoCytomation to begin distributing ACIS in North America in September and then expand globally, covering more than 70 countries.
The agreement also contemplates that the companies will develop more advanced cancer diagnostics solutions and invest in the development of a next generation system.