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news.Genomic Profiling Systems is set to receive a three-year $4.1 million phase II grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to develop a testing platform for rapid and ultra-sensitive diagnosis of anthrax.
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The system, known as MultiPath, will enable portable emergency testing on a mass scale, as would occur following a major bio-warfare attack. According to the company, the platform will also be useful for key clinical and industrial applications including flu testing and detection of pathogens in food.
Present methods for anthrax testing are incapable of accommodating large surges in demand for testing. A Government Accountability Office report to the US Senate in 2003 suggested that during the 2001 anthrax scare, testing was inaccurate and time consuming.
According to Dr Sal Salamone, CSO of Saladax Biomedical and former VP of R&D at Roche Diagnostics, “GPS has been able to develop a rapid detection system with excellent lower limits of detection. The performance of the system coupled with its simplicity will make it ideal for applications where speed and sensitivity are required such as in the event of a biowarfare attack or infectious outbreak.”