Detection by Proxy
The digital CMOS sensor detects beads – which are a proxy for the captured virus or antibody – and gives an instant digital readout with wireless upload.
This novel technology will enable health bodies to monitor diseases in real time, and enable digital platforms to enhance engagement with consumers by giving them direct access to critical biological information in real time.
Our technology enables digital platforms to enhance engagement with consumers by giving them direct access to critical biological information in real time.
Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize for the invention of PCR in 1983 building on other prizes in 1957, 1968 and 1977. It remains the gold standard for interrogating RNA and DNA to this day. No Nobel Prize has been awarded to molecular diagnostics in the four decades since.
Clever, intricate but iterative improvements on PCR (Hot Start Taq, qPCR, dPCR, LAMP, SDA, RPA, NEAR, HDA) trade for billions of dollars but no paradigm shift in molecular diagnostics has arisen. These technologies continue to be centralised, expensive, and not accessible to many who have the greatest need.
Detection by Proxy differs in that RNAs of interest are transduced into coded nanoparticles and these are read by a semiconductor sensor.
The RNA is purified in the process but is not modified or copied in any way. Detection by Proxy thus also works as sample prep for all other molecular techniques.
In the emerging era of “test-and-treat” and “test-at-home” policies, this novel assay in UbiHealth will facilitate decentralisation of healthcare and enable many new benefits, at point-of-care and in home telemedicine.
