Our Technology
At Altratech, we use fringe-field capacitive sensing in our technology; the same principle used in every smartphone, where electrodes beneath the glass screen detect your finger above the glass to enable fingerprint-ID functionality.
We are a team of twenty scientists engineers, including nine PhDs, has for the past seven years been researching and developing a Bioorthogonal alternative to PCR. With minimal sample preparation, the Altratech product and assay can rapidly detect and quantify molecular targets from any sample. The technology brings together nanotechnology, semiconductor technology and novel PNA chemistry to produce a unique and powerful assay. The assay named Molecular Detection by Proxy is a bead-based technology coupled with ultra-sensitive capacitance detection.
There are three key steps to the assay. Firstly, proprietary bioorthogonal PNAs are used to address the complication of extracting genetic material from a biological sample without any sample preparation. These synthetic nucleic acids are highly specific and can be introduced directly into the sample.
They then capture the target onto a magnetic bead. Next, these captured molecules are magnetically removed from the sample and are tethered onto coded nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are now a proxy for the biological target. Therefore, each particle is equivalent to a single biological target. Finally, these particles are released over a highly sensitive, bioorthogonal CMOS biosensor chip which results in a change of capacitance. Thus, with more particles the higher the measured capacitance which results in a linear correlation with the initial target present in the sample. This is Detection by Proxy
Consequently the assay can be easily multiplexed and even used to quantify other targets such as antibodies or antigens within the same test. Furthermore, once a new genome is available we can immediately program our core biorthogonal PNA chemistry with the specific targeting sequences, allowing a new test to be deployed within days. The assay will be encapsulated in a solid-state device capable of being miniaturised, productised and mass manufactured.
At Altratech, our mission is to enable next generation molecular detection.
This exciting technology enables robust, straightforward and flexible molecular diagnostics in any environment.
At Altratech, our mission is to enable next generation molecular detection.
This exciting technology enables robust, straightforward and flexible molecular diagnostics in any environment.
Bioorthogonal PNA
Altratech uses PNA Technology to address the fundamental complication of extracting genetic material from a biological sample. Bioorthogonal PNA offers a purely synthetic alternative to biotinylation; it is reversible, tuneable, and programmable. Bioorthogonal PNA will enable users to both multiplex and simplify sample preparation applications in a way which is not currently possible.


BioSensing
At Altratech, we use fringe-field capacitive sensing to quantify molecular targets. These sensors which sit in the top layer of a standard CMOS chip, detect the beads (magnetic, non-magnetic, gold, or silver nanoparticles) associated with a target. The surface of the sensor is also functionalised with PNA technology to enable multiplexing and robust detection.
Detection by Proxy
