710823Development of a novel, rapid and safe neutralising antibody diagnostic kit by The Native Antigen CompanyClosedGRD Proof of ConceptInnovate UKDiagnostic tests are a vital component of disease diagnosis and vaccine research. For any test, the important parameters are sensitivity (i.e. the ability of the test to correctly identify a positive sample) and specificity (i.e. its ability to discriminate correctly between different diseases). Most diagnostic tests are simple plate-based assays or pregnancy test-type assays – cheap and easy to run in most labs or GP surgeries, but often suffer from poor sensitivity and specificity. For example, tests for Chlamydia pneumonia can be false positive if genital Chlamydia trachomatis is present, and dengue virus tests come up positive for West Nile virus and tick-borne encephalitis. Plaque reduction neutralisation tests (PRNTs) get around these cross-reactivity problems, and are currently the gold standard diagnostic test, but they use live pathogens that are often extremely hazardous to handle and can take up to 10 days to perform. This means they can only be done in rare specialised laboratories and have a high cost per test. PRNTs are also used in vaccine research, where the number of neutralising antibodies is used as a measure for how efficacious a vaccine is. Having to perform these tests in high biocontainment facilities raises the cost of vaccine research and the speed to develop a successful vaccine. Our novel test is designed to provide the specificity and sensitivity of a PRNT, but with 100% safe reagents and taking only 1 day to perform. We believe this would be of great help to improve diagnosis for many human and animal diseases and to enable and enhance vaccine research into hazardous pathogens.