The new BCM MRSA ELF culture media will be manufactured and sold by Biosynth under license from Invitrogen’s molecular probes business. BCM MRSA ELF is designed to provide faster test results for active surveillance culturing, the most widely used method in hospitals and clinics to monitor, manage and prevent transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Dr. Urs Spitz, CEO of Biosynth, said: “MRSA is an enormous public threat and can jeopardize the lives of tens of thousands of hospital patients, among others, each year. This deadly infection has been difficult and expensive to rapidly identify, with traditional culture methods taking two days to yield results. In addition, nucleic acid tests are too expensive to use for routine screening and may result in false positives. We’re pleased to work with Invitrogen to develop rapid, low cost, reliable screening tools such as this media for use in clinical and environmental testing.”
Kip Miller, senior vice president, bio-discovery at Invitrogen, said: “The launch of this new media for MRSA detection is another example of how we are deploying our proprietary technologies to address threats to public health. We will continue to seek out partnerships, like the one we have with Biosynth, through which we can help power innovation with a direct impact on human health.”