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GenCell Bio, Brazilian Partners to Develop Clinical Screening Systems

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – GenCell Biosystems announced it has signed an agreement with Brazilian partners to develop new clinical screening systems to address that country's healthcare needs.

Limerick, Ireland-based GenCell will work with the Fiocruz Public Health Foundation, the Institute of Molecular Biology of Paraná, and the Bio-Manguinhos Technology Institute of Immunobiology to develop the systems as part of a two-year development program to diagnose infectious diseases in Brazil's national public health system. According to GenCell, the initial phase of the program is valued at more than $12 million and will be funded by all parties.

A new instrument platform being developed will be based on the firm's Composite Liquid Cell technology. The technology will be used to screen several different types of pathogens in various sample types "augmenting current health programs that depend on many different … in vitro diagnostic platforms," the firm said.

Its technology uses microfluidic approaches and special light wavelengths to analyze sample constituents and identify DNA profiles and the presence of pathogens. GenCell added that the system enables integrated and fully automated sample preparation to deliver "true sample in, answer out performance."

The platforms being developed as part of the new deal will result in "rapid, proven, and cost-effective" diagnostic results, it said. Fiocruz will develop and provide biological tests, help in defining system features, and aid GenCell in complying with Brazilian regulatory requirements.

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