NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – PlexBio today announced plans to expand its collaboration with Denka to include the codevelopment of a molecular diagnostic platform for infectious disease testing.
The new system will leverage PlexBio's multiplex πCode MicroDisc technology and initially focus on tests for sepsis and multidrug resistance. A full menu of assays for infectious disease is also planned, Taipei, Taiwan-based PlexBio said.
The πCode technology is a circular disc that can generate more than 16,000 image patterns for multiplexing, according to PlexBio's website. Each microdisc "is encapsulated in a highly stable matter with an added paramagnetic property," making it suitable for conjugation, washing, and automation procedures.
Each image corresponds to an individual target that can be detected via advance optical imaging and fluorescence reading. PlexBio said that "virtually any probe used in clinical diagnostics can be conjugated to πCode MicroDiscs, including DNA, RNA, antigens, antibodies, proteins, and chemical compounds." As a result, PlexBio can offer "highly sensitive and specific" results for immuno and molecular diagnostic formats from very low input sample volumes.
The deal announced today is aimed at accelerating the detection of infectious disease and multidrug resistance. PlexBio noted that sepsis detection currently relies on culture-based methods, and the addition of multidrug resistance analysis will lead to a time-to-result of two days or longer.
PlexBio and Denka, which is headquartered in Tokyo, inked a technology licensing deal in September 2016 to incorporate PlexBio's technology into several product development applications. The expanded deal is expected to contribute "significant" revenue from infectious disease and multidrug resistance testing starting in 2022, PlexBio added.
In August PlexBio received CE marking for its PlexBio100 second-generation fluorescence analyzer, which captures "distinct image patterns" recognized by bright-field microscopy and measures fluorescence-signal intensity by dark-field microscopy.