NEW YORK — 3EO Health signed an exclusive, worldwide licensing agreement to market an at-home PCR-grade assay system developed at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, the partners announced on Thursday.
3EO Health Founder Peng Yin led the research that developed the technology at the Wyss Institute. Under the licensing agreement, his company will validate and eventually sell portable, rapid, and highly sensitive nucleic acid detection technology produced through that research.
The company plans to make a COVID-19 test the first commercially available product and the first step toward building a larger self-testing platform, which it predicts could improve the speed and effectiveness of self-care. In a statement, Yin said that existing at-home antigen tests lack sensitivity and molecular tests are expensive.
"We have developed a simple and rapid test platform that promises to deliver PCR-level accuracy at antigen level cost," he said.
Yin's research team at Wyss developed a reusable base unit that requires minimal user input and uses pathogen-specific single-use consumables.
"Subsequent work at 3EO Health fully integrated the assay and device components, improved the speed and signal output of the evolved assay method, and transformed the prototypes into an inexpensive, reliable, and manufacturable detection system," the partners said.
The company also announced plans to incorporate the detection platform into comprehensive telehealth applications.
Financial and other terms of the deal were not disclosed.