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Atomo Diagnostics Awarded A$2.4M Grant for Syphilis Test Development

NEW YORK – Medical device maker Atomo Diagnostics said Wednesday that it has received an A$2.4 million (US$1.6 million) grant from the Australian Department of Industry, Science, and Resources to support the development of a point-of-care and home-use syphilis test.

The Sydney-based firm said that it will use the Cooperative Research Centres Projects grant for the development of an antibody assay that can be used with a finger-prick blood sample and Atomo's Pascal cartridge-based testing platform to aid the diagnosis of syphilis and distinguish between active and previously treated infections. The project is a collaboration with the Burnet Institute, which is a nongovernmental medical research organization, and the IDE Group, which is a medical technology development and commercialization firm.

Atomo said that a POC test that can distinguish between active and past infections would be unique on the global market and that no syphilis self-tests have been approved in Australia. The company noted that a 2023 report published by the University of New South Wales Kirby Institute stated that infectious syphilis cases in Australia more than tripled during the past decade.

The company said that it anticipates growing demand for the syphilis test through the consumer retail market, and it also plans to leverage the company's existing commercial channels for the Atomo HIV Self Test.