High-throughput sample prep is becoming critical to COVID-19 testing scale-up, but some labs are experiencing shortages at this stage in the testing workflow.
The firm's SmartChip platform consists of a high-throughput liquid dispenser and a PCR instrument and can provide more than 5,000 reactions in one run.
The company enters a race to the clinic with several direct competitors, including Guardant Health and CellMax Life, as well as other firms pursuing multi-cancer screening.
The company's adaptive low-resource testing technology requires no instrumentation and limited equipment, making it adaptable to settings without clinical lab infrastructure.
The Minneapolis-based firm believes the assay can successfully serve as a clinical indicator for patients at risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer (HGPC), thereby improving prostate cancer management.
Several groups are developing diagnostic viral genome sequencing assays and panels, which promise high sensitivity and additional information on viral origin and spread.
The first version of the platform, which the company submitted for Emergency Use Authorization to the US FDA last week, analyzes RNA extracted from a swab.
The diagnostics firm is conducting a 1,000-person study to find T cell profiles associated with the immune response to COVID-19 and recovery from the disease.
