Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Akubio

A new portable and low cost, rapid response disease diagnosis device that could help doctors make instant and accurate diagnoses for diseases such as malaria and meningitis and which is being pioneered by Cambridge-based nanotechnology firm Akubio, forms the basis of the Science Park company’s entry in the Innovation category of the 2006 Awards.

As recently reported in Business Weekly, the innovation has received £826,000 Government support to help develop the technology.

The £1.65m development programme, which will run over the next three years, is part-funded by a Collabor-ative R&D grant under the Department of Trade and Industry’s Technology Pro-gramme.

Substantially different from other diagnostic devices currently on the market (which require the addition of expensive chemicals to a sample to enable disease detection), the device, which utilises the quartz crystal element from a simple wristwatch and can be powered by standard batteries, could enable doctors to make instant, accurate, at-the-bedside or in-the-field medical diagnoses from blood or other samples.

Science & Innovation Minister Lord Sainsbury who announced the grant said: “I am delighted that the Technology Strategy Board is providing funds to support this project which will turn frontier research in nanotechnology and biotechnology into a marketable product which can create wealth and improve the quality of our lives.”

The device’s sensor detects specific molecules within a sample, using miniaturised echo sounder acoustic technology to determine the presence of marker proteins for a particular disease or disease causing pathogens such as bacteria or viruses including Avian Influenza, Menin-gitis, E.coli, Malaria, heart attack, stroke and some cancers.

Akubio’s chief scientist Dr Matthew Cooper said: “Building on our first commercial product, RAP•id 4, this funding will accelerate our development programme for the portable device and its companion products.

“Our work is a proprietary application combining the very latest in nanotechnology with the mass-produced quartz crystal resonator that is used in everyday appliances.

“Disease detection and patient monitoring has the potential to be significantly improved and there may also be cost benefits for hospitals and surgeries that could perform tests themselves rather than send away for them, potentially resulting in quicker diagnosis and improved treatment regimes.”

Akubio’s development partners are the University of Cambridge and Melton Mowbray-based magnetic particle firm Reagent Mine Ltd.

University of Cambridge Professor of Biological Chemistry Chris Abell said: “I am delighted to be part of this collaboration, helping to forge links between academia and innovative industrial partners.

“The development of novel solutions for the detection of life threatening diseases is a very important area of research and one in which this kind of industry-academia partnership potentially offers great synergies.”