With hospitalizations rapidly rising as the COVID-19 pandemic washes across the world in a winter wave, researchers are racing to develop treatments that protect the increasing number of ventilated patients. One option focuses on protecting muscles critical to breathing.
Salient Bio launched a robotics-driven PCR test for COVID-19 with 99% for use in mass testing for the virus. The company says the "fastest ever" test notifies users of test results in less than a day and is priced to be cost effective for businesses. Salient plans to expand the number of tests utilizing the modular diagnostics platform in 2021 to include a range of pathogens. Even with vaccines on the horizon in the coming months, the London-based company expects brisk demand for its product.
With the world experiencing another wave of the coronavirus pandemic that threatens to overwhelm hospitals and testing capacity, the ability to quickly diagnose COVID-19 based on alternative methodologies has become increasingly important. For patients with respiratory symptoms, review of CT scans emerged as a relatively reliable indicator of infection with SARS-CoV-2 from the first days of its emergence, but the need for more accurate readings remains.
A new sensor developed by The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. measures your bioelectrical field. It may sound like “polishing your aura” but, in reality, it stands to be the most significant transformation of the electrocardiogram in decades. The sensor adapts technology developed for navigation and guidance systems to provide three-dimensional (3D) measurement of the heart's bioelectric field.
New artificial intelligence capabilities will be integrated into widely used genomic testing for breast cancer under a new partnership formed by Agendia Inc. and Paige.ai. The two companies are working together to enhance the genomic information from Agendia's Mammaprint and Blueprint diagnostic tests with AI-based digital diagnostics provided by Paige with the goal of redefining precision oncology.
Following steady expansion of its base among global pharmaceutical companies, Correlia Biosystems Inc. has secured the capital needed to make its nanotechnology-based immunoassay platform commercially available. The company received an infusion of $7 million in series A financing in a round led by Neotribe Ventures with participation by Cota Capital, the Regents of the University of California and others.
The U.S. FDA cleared Alivecor Inc.'s Kardia AI V2 interpretive electrocardiogram (ECG) algorithm for use in its personal ECG app and devices. Currently, the Kardia line permits consumers to take a 30-second medical grade ECG at home and instantly see whether they are exhibiting symptoms of atrial fibrillation, bradycardia, tachycardia or have normal heart rhythm.
Rebus Biosystems Inc. has closed a $20 million series B fundraising round. The financing round was led by Illumina Ventures with participation by Lifecore Partners, Ncore Ventures, Xolon Invest, Ctk Investments, Ray Co. Ltd., Seegene Medical Foundation, Labgenomics Co. Ltd. and Timefolio Asset Management. Rebus builds spatial omics tools, assays and platforms. The company plans to use the new funding to support commercialization of its spatial omics solution and expansion of its marketing, sales, research, and product development teams, said Rebus CEO Paul Sargeant. Rebus plans to launch its automated, standalone Rebus Biosystems instrument and optimized assay kits for spatial transcriptomics early in 2021.
Hot on the heels of news that two vaccines for COVID-19 are nearing market readiness, two companies have broken away from the pack of assay manufacturers to offer quantitative antibody tests that can verify whether the vaccines provide effective, lasting protection. Siemens Healthineers and Imanis Life Sciences both claim to be first to develop scalable, quantitative neutralizing antibody tests.
Medtronic plc's cryoablation could soon put drug therapy on ice in parts of the atrial fibrillation (AF) market, based on results of studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2020.
