The Liat point of care system system has launched with four assays, including three respiratory tests and a novel test for Clostridium difficile.
The firm said that its test is the first on the market to detect RSV infection at the point of care in 13 minutes or less.
The tests are twice as fast as the firm's Xpert line and run on Cepheid's flagship GeneXpert system.
The firm also announced that it plans to expand its RAS biomarker testing collaboration with Amgen in Europe.
The test is the first in a proposed line of assays that will run on the GeneXpress platform with run times of around 30 minutes.
The real-time PCR-based test runs on the BD Max system and comes in a single tube that snaps into the BD MAX extraction cartridge.
The PCR-based assays run on the company's Aries system, which itself received FDA clearance in October 2015.
The point-of-care test detects and distinguishes influenza A and B as well as respiratory syncytial virus in about 20 minutes.
The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne's Samira Asgari uncovered rare variants that seem to govern an extreme response to RSV or HRV infection.
The test is the first of several planned CLIA-waived assays from Cepheid, and the first point-of-care test on the market to differentiate flu from RSV.
CNBC reports that Amazon invested in the startup Grail as it sees an opportunity for its cloud computing company in genomics.
Lawrence Krauss writes at Slate that science is needed for good public policy and should not be ignored.
Researchers are working on re-making the yeast genome from scratch, according to the Associated Press.
In Cell this week: functional profiling of Plasmodium genome, a self-inactivating rabies virus, and more.
