Akonni Biosystems launches
TruSentry for rapid genetic screening of diseases
16 Feb 2011
Akonni Biosystems has announced the availability of TruSentry,
a fully automated system designed for rapid identification of infectious
microorganisms and drug resistant variants at a significantly lower
overall cost.
TruSentry brings together Tecan’s Freedom EVO 200 liquid handling
system with Akonni’s TruTip technology for ultra-rapid sample
extraction and TruArray microarray platform for low-cost,
highly-multiplexed screening.
The fully automated, sample-to-answer system significantly increases
throughput compared to other systems available in the market today
that are based on real-time PCR, magnetic bead, or traditional
microarray technologies. The highly modular nature of Akonni’s
technology enables it to more rapidly extract pathogens from a
broader range of clinical samples (such as blood, sputum, nasal
wash, urine, stool or CSF), and to more quickly develop and launch
new and custom assays, providing users with complete flexibility to
test for new targets as they become known.
Dr Charles Daitch, CEO of Akonni Biosystems, explains, "With a
rapidly growing and mobile human population coupled to the ever
present threat caused by expanding genetic variants of
drug-resistant pathogen strains, it is becoming increasingly
important to have the ability to proactively protect communities
from the rapid spread of disease.
“Current microarray, bead-based and PCR-based systems are
severely limited in that they are either too costly for
high-throughput screening applications, are difficult to scale, or
severely restrict the types of clinical sample matrices and number
of diseases that can be addressed simultaneously.
"Further, most of these systems do not afford the flexibility to
rapidly design tests that incorporate newly identified variants or
region-specific targets. In TruSentry, we are introducing the
industry’s first system that combines affordable screening for
pathogens on a microarray platform with the ability to
simultaneously detect tens to hundreds of disease-causing agents and
their variants.”
Capable of processing from as few as 8 to more than 3,000 unique
samples per day, initial solutions for TruSentry will include
several low-cost, highly-multiplexed applications. These
applications include tests for identifying:
- seasonal influenza viruses, with sub typing for oseltamivir
resistance;
- other viruses that cause respiratory ailments, such as
parainfluenza virus , respiratory syncytial virus, monkeypox
virus, human respiratory virus, adenovirus, corona virus and
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS);
- the most common bio-security threat agents, including
Bacillus anthracis, vaccinia virus, and Yersinia pestis;
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its multidrug-resistant
strains; and
- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Future applications will include highly-multiplexed solutions for
screening for gastroenteritis agents; for blood-borne pathogens,
such as hepatitis A, B and C viruses; and for common
sexually-transmitted bacteria, including C. trachomatis,
N. gonorrhoeae, M. genitalium, M. hominis,
and U. urealyticum. The system is also easily adapted for
other purposes, eg newborn screening, cancer screening, or companion
diagnostic applications.