Life sciences company SQI Diagnostics has entered into a master service agreement to contract with a UK-based company to automate their deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA-based pathogen detection assays.
During the initial phase of this agreement, the company will deliver an automated working prototype of one of the customer’s assays, operational on SQI’s sqidlite system.
The initial phase is scheduled for completion by mid-September 2014.
It is anticipated that other molecular diagnostic tests will be commissioned in another agreement following successful implementation of the initial phase.
The first assay being automated is used to identify pathogens in raw milk from dairy cows.
Currently, dairy cows are routinely tested for health through a global network of laboratories and when symptoms of bacterial infections appear, pathogens are commonly detected using traditional plate cultures.
The new application can be used for faster and more accurate identification of multiple pathogens simultaneously.
The UK-based company is developing additional assays for agriculture, food safety and human pathogen testing, intended to screen high volumes of samples on a regular basis.
