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Acrongenomics is an established company that identifies and then investsin groundbreaking technologies. In May 2006, the Company first identified thecombination of microfluidics and light responsive polymers being developed byMolecular Vision as having the potential of completely revolutionising thePoint of Care (PoC) diagnostics market. In a simple to use compact hand helddevice the analytical capabilities of a number of standard pieces oflaboratory equipment can be duplicated. This means that a very wide range ofdiagnostic tests based on the same procedures that are used in thelaboratory, will now be available to be undertaken in a physicians office, oreven in the field if you were, for example, trying to identify an outbreak ofinfectious disease in farm animals. This wide utility was identified byAcrongenomics and resulted in them investing US $ 4.6million in MolecularVision in order to build a prototype of the hand held device and undertaketrials comparing the results obtained with the device with those obtainedfrom standard pieces of equipment routinely used in Pathology Laboratories.The results of comparative trial measuring creatinine in urine will bepresented comparing the Molecular Vision device with the Siemens DCA 2000.These results have shown good correlation. A further comparative trialmeasuring vitamin C is underway and various blood based tests are beingplanned. Once these comparative trials are completed, the company will thencommercialise the first diagnostic panel to monitor kidney function, followedby vitamin C monitoring.
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Dr Dimitris Goundis, CEO of Acrongenomics commented: "Molecular Visionhas an exceptional team working with a very exciting technology that we feelwill become a very significant part of the US$11bn market. Because of thecompact and mobile nature of this technology, we see it as having much widerapplication than we envisaged when we made the initial investment to securerights for kidney, cardiovascular and STD applications. We now see this as astandard unit that will be used in the hospital clinics, wards, operatingtheatres and emergency departments, indeed wherever quick results arerequired for rapid intervention at one end of the spectrum or for theconvenience of the patient in the clinic or physicians office environment atthe other end. However the true versatility of this device is such that theunit can be taken into the field, not only to support community based healthinitiatives, but also in homeland security and in the veterinary field wherein situ testing for infectious disease could take place. Having seen allthese applications open to the device it is now appropriate for us to protectour initial investment and take total control over the rapidcommercialisation of this exceptional and versatile technology."
Dr Ian Campbell, CEO of Molecular Vision added: "Acrongenomics is anideal partner to support the Company as we now have the guaranteed access tofunding that will now allow the team to concentrate solely of generatingcomparative data for an increasing range of diagnostic tests. Since we firstshowcased the device in March of 2007 we have been able to improve thedetection sensitivity 100-fold through a combination of optimised lightsources, light detectors and filters, all of which are assembled at low cost,ideal for the point-of-care diagnostic market. We now need to showunequivocally that this system generates the same data with the same degree
