NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – PathoGenetix said today that it has tapped Sparton to design and manufacture pre-commercial instruments for its Resolution Microbial Genotyping System for detecting microbial pathogens in food.
Under the agreement, Schaumburg Ill.-based Sparton will handle the design, building, and pilot production of a limited number of pre-commercial instruments for the Resolution system, which is set to be on the market in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The Resolution system, which will be used for safety testing for the food industry and for investigating food-borne outbreaks, is the first commercial application for PathoGenetix' Genome Sequence Scanning technology. The system enables pathogen serotype identification and strain typing within five hours, and the bacterial strain information it provides is comparable to pulsed field gel electrophoresis, the current standard for pathogen typing for foodborne illness responses.
Woburn, Mass.-based PathoGenetix said pre-commercial units of the system are undergoing testing and evaluation by government and food industry partners, and it has shipped a version to Marshfield Food Safety for independent testing and feedback.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.