Micronics Receives Continuation Grant From TATRC To Further Develop Its Rapid Blood Typing Test
REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Micronics, Inc. today announced that it has been awarded a continuation from the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) to support the ongoing development of a microfluidics-based test for efficiently screening donor blood types. Blood typing typically focuses on a donor's blood type (either A, B, AB or O) and Rhesus (Rh) factor.
Under an earlier 2007 TATRC award, the company performed pre-clinical testing of over 300 donor samples using a prototype version of its credit card-sized, single-use device, called the ABORhCard. In that study, Micronics received previously tested and anonymized samples from two collaborators. Micronics then tested these samples using its development-stage, microfluidics-enabled ABO/Rh device and reported the results back to the collaborators. The collaborators confirmed that Micronics' results were 100% accurate.
Unique to this study was the fact that Micronics was able to accurately determine both the blood type and Rh factor of each sample provided in less than 30 seconds using its easy-to-use, disposable, manually operated device. In contrast, the collaborators used traditional blood bank laboratory methods that require instrumentation and trained technicians to deliver the same results in minutes to hours.
With TATRC's continuation of the grant support, the company expects to advance product development to clinical testing. The prototype design has been converted to commercial production design. As with the prototype, the commercial device contains all of the necessary reagents required to determine in parallel a donor's blood type and Rh factor status.
The overall objective of this funded effort is to develop a credit card-sized test capable of rapidly and accurately determining a donor's ABO and Rh type. While current approved methods for blood typing are in use worldwide, the intended ABORhCard being developed under this grant provides a fieldable method in a user-friendly, integrated disposable that produces a visible result in seconds. No blood typing product exists today that can be used across multiple donation scenarios, by relatively unskilled users and in an affordable and safe format. Additionally, most products and methods in use today require liquid reagents that require refrigeration or immediate use. The Micronics ABORhCard is being developed to address these issues.
In discussions with representatives of the Department of Defense, Micronics identified an unmet need for a fieldable, stable, cost-effective and disposable means of quickly and accurately screening blood donors in order to register new donors and schedule blood draws in response to medical need. Whether as part of a new enlistee's medical profile, in ongoing medical practice, or in response to national emergency, mobilization or war, the Department of Defense plays an active and vital role in ensuring the safety and accuracy of the blood supply. Current blood screening methods, however, are labor and time intensive and results are produced remote from the collection center and up to hours after the blood screening is performed.
TATRC's overall funding support for this device, including this new continuation, totals approximately $500,000.
About TATRC
TATRC is an element of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command with headquarters at Fort Detrick, Maryland. TATRC plays a key role for the Department of Defense in developing advanced technologies in such areas as medical robotics, health information technology, medical imaging, advanced prosthetics and human performance, computational biology, mobile computing and remote monitoring, simulation and training technology, chronic disease management, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, nano-medicine and biomaterials, and medical logistics. TATRC is an important thought leader in new areas focused on advancing the best of military medicine to achieve an advantage for the American fighting force.
About Micronics
Micronics is an emerging leader in the development of near-patient molecular and immunohematology diagnostic tests that allow real-time answers to health questions while at the physician's office, in the emergency room, or wherever rapid and accurate test results are informative to health status, disease detection and patient care. Central to Micronics' product development efforts are tests for infectious disease diagnostics. www.micronics.net
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