Nanogen, Inc., developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that it has received project funding from several Canadian agencies, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The purpose of the funding and collaborative agreement is to develop diagnostic tools for the detection of natural or potential bioterror threats to livestock, such as foot and mouth disease and avian flu, employing the company’s NanoChip platform.
“Although the majority of our NanoChip instruments are used in basic research and human clinical diagnostics applications, we have always known that the platform’s flexibility confers benefit in other markets, such as veterinary diagnostics and the monitoring of bioterror threats,” said Nanogen president and chief operating officer David Ludvigson.
Foot and mouth disease, a viral infection that devastated the beef industry in the United Kingdom in 2001, is a bioterror concern because it is easily transmissible from animal to animal. Economic losses could be enormous - the 2001 epidemic cost an estimated $12 billion, according to a study sponsored by the Wash., D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Avian flu poses a similar threat to poultry stocks.
The NanoChip 400 is the company’s second generation automated multiplexing platform, which uses advanced microarray technology for performing pathogen sequence detection and genotyping applications. Multiple samples with multiple targets can be applied to an open and flexible electronic microarray, the NanoChip cartridge, which may be reused until all test sites have been utilized. As the NanoChip arrays are built by users rather than containing pre-determined content, the system provides a simple, fast and cost effective means for performing molecular testing.
The project, titled “Adaptation of Recently Developed DNA Microarrays to NanoChip Microarray Technology for Detection of Agroterrorism Agents” was approved by Defence Research and Development Canada through the CRTI Program (CBRNE [Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear] Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI). Financial terms were not disclosed. Additional collaborators include the CFIA’s laboratory in Lethbridge, Alberta and the National Center for Foreign Animal Diseases located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
