Sagentia has completed initial alpha prototype development of the Resolution Microbial Genotyping system that it is developing for PathoGenetix.
Pathogenetix's Resolution system can identify specific pathogen causing a foodborne illness outbreak, which is a critical step in defining the extent of the outbreak, determine the food involved, the source of the contamination and define the scope of a product recall.
The Resolution system is based on PathoGenetix's Genome Sequence Scanning (GSS) technology that was initially developed to detect bio-threat pathogens in environmental samples.
It automates the process of isolating and analyzing DNA molecules from complex mixtures, which eliminates the need for a pure culture isolate and also speed up the results by providing molecular serotype and strain type information for target bacteria within five hours, faster compared with other existing methods.
The strain type information that the GSS provides is comparable to pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), according to the company.
Sagentia has been working with PathoGenetix as its technology and product development partner for the past two years across the full product development lifecycle - helping PathoGenetix to take two initial bread board systems and integrating them into a usable system with a smaller footprint and lower per unit cost base.
Although, the technology was initially developed as part of a contract for the Department of Homeland Security, it is now being developed to efficiently detect pathogens in the food industry.
Sagentia is a global innovation, technology and product development company. It provides outsourced R&D consultancy services to start ups through to global firms in the medical, industrial and consumer sectors.
PathoGenetix is a commercial-stage developer of an automated system for rapid bacterial identification from complex samples.