NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Computational proteomics firm Sage-N Research today announced an exclusive licensing agreement with the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, or ECBC, to commercialize a new platform for the identification of pathogenic microorganisms in fluids.
Under the deal, ECBC's Agents of Biological Organs Identification system will be integrated into Sage-N Research's Sorcerer proteomics platform. Sorcerer is an integrated data appliance for the rapid identification of proteins and protein modifications in biological samples using mass spectrometry data, and is capable of identifying 45,500 different bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
The new platform covered by today's announcement will use the computational power of Sorcerer to identify bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other cellular material without the need for growing cultures or any prior knowledge about them, Sage-N Research said.
ECBC Senior Scientist Charles Wick said in a statement that the new technology will allow for the identification of microorganisms in minutes, rather than hours. "This proves very successful for infectious disease identification and a range of other potential applications in military, medical, pharmaceutical, food, and public safety areas," he said.
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.