NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – InDevR this week announced a collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's Richard Webby on the development of a diagnostic test for influenza.
Webby's laboratory will help the Boulder, Colorado-based firm develop its FluChip-8G, a microarray-based clinical test for genotyping influenza viruses. InDevR signed a $14.7 million contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority about a year ago to finish developing the test.
Webby is an expert on influenza and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude. As part of its collaboration with InDevR, Webby's lab will evaluate the performance of FluChip-8G on non-seasonal influenza viruses.
If cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, FluChip-8G will enable physicians to rapidly distinguish between seasonal and potential pandemic non-season influenza viruses such as H5N1 and H7N9, InDevR said.