720064Magnetic lab-on-chip devices for multiplexed clinical diagnosticsClosedGRD Development of PrototypeInnovate UKThere is a need of physicians and clinicians to screen biological samples for many pathogens in a cost effective and reliable way, ideally in a single test (multiplexing). The ability to quickly and accurately diagnose diseases and their many subtypes (infectious and autoimmune diseases, cancer) is crucial to provide rapid and targeted treatment to individual patients. The trend is towards molecular tests which avoid the need of manual microscope diagnosis of cultured samples as it has been traditionally to date. Conventionally such tests are sent away to specialist laboratories, however many of the multiplexed tests are best performed at the point of care (POC), in order to streamline treatment. Simple POC multiplexed assays for cardiac markers, for example, are used in emergency rooms for early diagnosis of heart attacks. The addition of more markers to tests would enable better treatment, but the current technology is limited in multiplexing capabilities. In addition, physicians already run simple tests for infectious diseases such as Streptococcus in order to provide treatment right away and prevent further spread. They could do the same for infectious diseases that require analysis of multiple sequences, such as influenza and MRSA or for diabetes where additional markers could enable better long-term care, if they had better multiplexing capabilities. Cambridge BioMagnetics’s (CBM) core technology addresses this business opportunity with two offerings within the global Healthcare market. The first provides cost effective, customisable, lab-on-a-chip multiplex diagnostic tools for POC use by doctors, nurses and even non-specialised staff. This offers Healthcare cost reduction and the patients benefit from reduced waiting times and elimination of misdiagnosis. The second offering provides multiplex molecular diagnostics for clinical labs for more specialised tests.