Alliance to Develop Infectious Disease Diagnostics

The research agreement covers the development of different assays for the diagnosis of infectious diseases.

MND's technology directly measures the presence of live viruses and bacteria in body fluids by detecting the specific enzymatic activity of microorganisms during replication. The activity of these enzymes on specific substrates triggers an emission of fluorescence, enabling differential diagnosis of bacterial and viral families and their subtypes. Bio-informatics analysis has resulted in the design of specific substrate sequences, which make the tests extremely accurate. The technology can be applied in many fields, including the diagnosis and identification of avian flu strains.

The objective of the research agreement is to demonstrate the compatibility of MND's technology with BMD's Fidis technology and lead to the design of diagnostic kits able to be used on the automated Caris-Fidis platform of BMD. Fidis is a flow cytometer based on optical sorting and fluorescent measurement of colored beads. The Fidis system can be connected to a laboratory information system (LIMS), as well as to Caris, a sample-preparation system that automates the different analytic steps. This solution is suitable for any size of laboratory, and it caters to the diagnosis of both autoimmune and infectious diseases.

BMD's ability to market 10-marker automated panels for autoimmune diseases augurs well for a mutually beneficial collaboration, and we have no doubt that we will be able to bring to market multiplex tests that as yet do not exist for infectious diseases, said Dr. Dorit Arad, president of MND.


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