|
Sequencing in the palm of your hand?
May 2012
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
NEWCASTLE, U.K.—Under an agreement signed near the end of
March, QuantuMDx Group (QMDx), a biotech company developing a range of portable
technologies for diagnostics, DNA sequencing and proteomics, will engage in a
research collaboration with the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) of the
Singapore-based Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
Under this collaboration, IME will further advance QMDx's
DNA sequencing nanowire biosensor to the point of commercialization. QMDx aims
to be a
pioneer in developing a "handheld, all-in-one DNA sequencer."
The device was invented by QMDx's
chief scientific officer,
Jonathan O'Halloran, and is currently in prototype form. The A*STAR
collaboration is intended to leverage IME's silicon-
based nanowire technology
to develop biosensing technology that can simultaneously and rapidly detect
large numbers of different cells and
biomaterials.
According to the two companies, "The synergy of QMDx's
proprietary molecular capture
and IME's technology will soon deliver
affordable, rapid and accurate clinical targeted DNA sequencing at the point of
need."
According to Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, the executive director of
IME, "The collaboration with QMDx to deliver a
technology breakthrough clearly
demonstrates the potential of IME's cross-disciplinary expertise and
capabilities in the bioelectronics industry."
IME was established to provide a research-and-development
bridge between academia and industry and
to add value to Singapore's
semiconductor industry by developing strategic competencies, innovative
technologies and intellectual property; enabling
enterprises to be
technologically competitive; and cultivating a technology talent pool to inject
new knowledge to the industry. IME focuses on such
areas as bioelectronics,
medical devices, nanoelectronics, photonics, integrated circuit design and
advanced packaging.
"Our collaboration with IME is of immense importance to
QMDx. Not only will our partnership enable both parties to
utilize our
respective expertise to further develop and commercialize on-chip DNA
sequencing, but it also represents a major milestone for QMDx as we
embark on
setting up operations in Singapore to benefit from the country's wealth of
biotech expertise and state-of-the-art manufacturing and
fabrication
facilities," notes Elaine Warburton, CEO of QMDx.
QMDx's first commercial product,
Q-POC, is scheduled to hit
the market in 2013. As described by QMDx, the device will deliver affordable,
rapid and accurate medical diagnosis in less
than 20 minutes, reportedly with
the same accuracy—both sensitivity and specificity—as any state-of-the-art full
laboratory, but at the patient's side
and at a fraction of the cost. The
company is working with various partner companies to create disposable
diagnostic cartridges for companion
diagnostics, tuberculosis (TB), sexually
transmitted infections (STIs), genetic testing and cardiovascular disease. The
first commercial assays
expected to be available for the device are in
companion diagnostics and multidrug resistant infectious disease testing,
including TB, HIV and STIs.
Still in development, with no planned release dates as yet,
are the Q-SEQ portable genomic sequencer, which is what IME and QMDx are
working
to complete, and InVenio, a whole-proteome array.
The Q-SEQ will use QMDx's nanowire biosensors
arrayed in
various different formations and structures to provide both short reads and long
reads. The company says that Q-SEQ "is being developed to
undertake 'genomic
sequencing while you wait, because 'shotgun sequencing,'" as QMDx describes
current next-generation sequencing methods, "cannot
provide the full story of
variation, as it is unable to resolve, copy number variations large repeats and
rearrangements"—specifically, the structural
variation that makes up a
significant proportion of human genetic variation. According to QMDx, a
combination of shotgun and targeted long read-length
sequencing will facilitate
the "definitive de-novo sequencing
platform and deliver true whole-genome sequencing, not the approximately
70
-percent genome sequencing that shotgun platforms presently offer." Code: E051211 Back |
Home |
FAQs |
Search |
Submit News Release |
Site Map |
About Us |
Advertising |
Resources |
Contact Us |
Terms & Conditions |
Privacy Policy
|