ASK: Rapid point of care testing partners

Dublin City University is looking to partner with companies who have complementary expertise in the development of rapid point of care testing

The Fraunhofer Project Centre for Embedded Bioanalytical Systems at Dublin City University (FPC@DCU) is a one-stop shop for the development of microfluidics-based solutions for decentralised bioanalytical testing.

Rapid point of care testing of patients both in the field and at hospital emergency units allows for earlier detection during pandemics, when compared to collection of samples and detection in an advanced laboratory setting which requires significant additional time and resources.

FPC@DCU enables medical professionals, clinicians, biotechnologists and medtech companies to create such point of care systems from the initial testing scale to a technology fit for mass manufacture.

The team has significant experience and portfolio in creating such systems for point of care devices for various analytical “targets” including viruses, proteins, nucleic acids, metabolites, drugs, dissolved ions and gases and human cells. Samples are blood, saliva, urine, or other bodily fluids or (semi)solids. They can be deployed “near-patient” in a hospital, clinic, , or administered at home or in-field to detect, manage and monitor disease. These tests accept a sample with little or no pre-preparation and provide a result in seconds to a few hours.

FPC@DCU offers expertise in development of microfluidic systems for point of care diagnostics.

The team is looking for partners who have complementary expertise i.e. biotech and biochemistry partners who have an assay for detection of a particular biomarker or a set of them for diagnostics.