NEW YORK (360Dx) – BGN Technologies today announced a collaboration with Singapore medical diagnostics firm Biosensorix to develop quantitative point-of-care diagnostics.
The technology is an electrochemical lateral flow immunosensor test that can quantitatively diagnose disease-related biomarkers and pathogens. The device will be similar to a USB drive, BGN, the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, said.
The collaboration results from joint research by scientists at BGU and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore as part of the Singapore-Israel NRF CREATE program.
The new technology will be used initially for detecting dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is endemic in Southeast Asia and South America. "Most people with dengue fever can be released to home care, yet are kept at the hospital until results come in," Robert Marks, a professor in the Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren department of biotechnology engineering at BGU, said in a statement. "Our kit provides physicians with true triage power: with the new diagnostic kit, the physician can release the patient within half an hour, saving time and money."
The second application of the technology will be for assessing stroke severity and the early detection of a secondary stroke. The partners said that the technology could accelerate the diagnosis of ischemic strokes, which currently relies on clinical assessment and neuroimaging.
Kits that are being developed with the new technology will cost about $5, said Biosensorix CEO Lukas Fajs said.