NEW YORK — Antelope Dx said on Tuesday that it has received a €2.2 million ($2.6 million) grant from the Flanders Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) to expand the use of its at-home diagnostic testing platform to include nasal swab and blood samples.
Antelope is currently developing a urine-based test, which combines a photonic lab-on-a-chip with a lateral flow immunoassay testing architecture, for the sexually transmitted infections Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The firm received a €2.5 million VLAIO grant in January to support those efforts.
With the latest funding, the Belgian company aims to continue work on an influenza A/B self-test that uses nasal swab specimens, as well as develop at-home tests that can measure protein biomarkers in finger prick blood samples. Antelope said it also plans to extend the flu test to include SARS-CoV-2 detection.
All of the firm's tests are designed to run on a reusable, handheld device.
"By allowing individuals to test in their home setting, they avoid the spread of respiratory viruses through fast detection and patient isolation," Bart Van Meerbergen, business developer and application manager at Antelope, said in a statement. "This VLAIO grant validates our approach to take diagnostics in the personal home setting where both therapy monitoring and acute infectious diseases testing will be possible."