NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biotech firm MeMed today announced it has been awarded a $9.2 million contract to complete the development of its point-of-care platform for distinguishing bacterial from viral infections.
The grant is from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a branch of the US Department of Defense. In collaboration with researchers and clinicians, the firm has spent the past eight years studying changes in the human immune system when it fights infections, in order to develop a human immune signature that recognizes the difference between bacterial and viral infections.
The Israeli firm has developed ImmunoExpert, which is already in use and has been validated. A second generation of the test is being developed with a new POC platform that is easy to use and takes 15 minutes, MeMed said. The new platform could lead to new rapid multiplex protein measurements at the point of care with laboratory precision, MeMed Chief Technology Officer Kfir Oved said in a statement.
Ongoing work supported by the DTRA funding will "evaluate and expand our test menu to detect early infections, even at the presymptomatic stage of a disease — currently a major challenge in our ability to control infections and epidemics," MeMed VP Scientific Affairs Tanya Gottlieb added.