Improved Collection, Specificity, and Longterm Reagent Storage for Point of Care Diagnostics

The role of point of care (POC) diagnostics in the medical field has rapidly grown in the last few decades into a multi-billion dollar industry. For many diagnostic applications, POC diagnostics technologies are rapidly displacing in-vitro laboratory based diagnostics because POC systems allow for more rapid and effective diagnosis and triage, which leads to improved patient outcomes and reduced health care costs. Furthermore, POC systems are field portable, require minimal training and technical skills to operate, hence tests can be self administered. All of the advantages provided by POC systems make it an ideal platform for diagnostic needs by the U.S. military where resources are scarce but rapid diagnosis and treatment is critical. However, current POC systems are not able to meet clinical grade sensitivity and specificity do not meet long-term storage needs in non-controlled environments, and do not allow for sample collection with minimum sample preparation. To address these needs, Infoscitex Corporation (IST) and Claros Diagnostics propose to develop an aptamer base POC diagnostic system which leverages IST"s proprietary rapid isolation of DNA aptamers (RIDA) process with Claros Diagnostics"mature microfluidic based POC platform.