ITI Life Sciences technology demonstrates value in veterinary markets
Successful testing of biomarker platform with applications in animal health
Dundee, Scotland, ITI Life Sciences is pleased to announce the successful completion of a ten week veterinary feasibility study carried out in partnership with two Scottish based companies ReactivLab Limited and The Moredun Research Institute, and supported by Stirling Medical Innovations Limited (SMI).
The study revealed that the diagnostic platform developed by SMI through an ITI Life Sciences research programme for ‘at home’ monitoring of key cardiac conditions in humans, can be adapted and used successfully for key applications in the veterinary market. The device is well suited to the veterinary market as it is small, portable, takes less than 10 minutes to gather accurate results and can be used on the farm and in other less accessible locations. The platform is being tested in current clinical trails in the US for human cardiac disease monitoring.
Targeting the veterinary diagnostic market, estimated to be worth up to $2 billion per year, the study used assays[1] from partners ReactivLab Limited in Glasgow for inflammation in dogs and an assay from The Moredun Research Institute in Edinburgh for an important viral disease of cattle.
Results from the study found that the ReactivLab assay, which has potential uses in the diagnosis of inflammatory diseases and in monitoring treatment in dogs, produced excellent predictive results on the platform. Similarly the researchers at The Moredun Research Institute were able to demonstrate convincingly the accuracy of their assay for testing cattle for infection with bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV, which causes serious disease in cattle leading to significant welfare problems and economic loss.
David Lang, Managing Director of SMI, said: “Seeing the ease of use and flexibility of our platform in these tests is really encouraging and I have been impressed by the quality and exciting work of the veterinary research providers in this area. The platform and technology we have developed with ITI may, in addition to the human diagnostic opportunities that we are exploring, prove to have significant applications in the veterinary, food, drink and environmental testing areas.”
Eleanor Mitchell, Managing Director of ITI Life Sciences, said: “This project demonstrates the power of the platform development approach adopted by ITI Scotland and clearly illustrates a technology developed by ITI for one market having applications in other markets. What is particularly pleasing is the fact that we were able to engage with Scottish companies with existing veterinary assays to provide the experimental data to enable us to pursue licensing into this new market.
“The work carried out in the veterinary sector is exciting and the market research that we have conducted in the food and drink and other industry sectors indicates that there are other applications of our technology. Food, drink and environmental testing are all major markets where use of such rapid testing systems is in the early adoption phase and ITI is currently looking for licensing partners who wish to explore specific opportunities in these markets where this technology may be applied.”
Stephen Westwood, Chief Executive of ReactivLab Limited, commented: “We are very pleased with our involvement in ITI’s technology. ITI Life Sciences has provided a further important opportunity to test our assays in new formats, and we have been delighted to clearly demonstrate the assays’ multi-platform use and provide valuable results for this technology. ReactivLab look forward to delivering more success together with ITI.”
Professor Gary Entrican from Moredun Research Institute commented: “Moredun is delighted to work with ITI on this collaborative project. The results from this study demonstrate the potential for point of care testing for infectious disease in livestock.”
[1] An assay is a biochemical test which measures the presence of disease or an important function in the sample derived from animal, food, drink etc.
For further information, interviews or photography from ITI Life Sciences please contact:
Jamie Henderson / Cat Synnot
Firefly Communications
0131 553 0150
james.henderson@fireflycomms.com / cat.synnot@fireflycomms.com
For further information on the technology and other applications please contact
John Reid
ITI Scotland
0141 204 8044
john.reid@itiscotland.com
About ITI Life Sciences
ITI Life Sciences is a division of ITI Scotland Ltd, a publicly funded organisation focused on driving sustainable economic growth in Scotland through ownership of commercially targeted R&D programmes delivering world-class intellectual assets. ITI Scotland is focused on three market areas: energy, life sciences, and digital media and communications technology.
ITI Life Sciences (Dundee, Scotland) aims to leverage Scotland’s research excellence in life sciences to generate new technologies that address future global market opportunities.
This is achieved by identifying and commissioning early stage R&D programmes based on assessing future market needs and developing the required technology assets. The organisation also identifies appropriate commercial partners to exploit these assets globally.
To date, ITI Life Sciences has initiated R&D programmes in commercially attractive areas such as point of care diagnostics, stem cell technologies, predictive drug screening and text mining.
Further information can be found at www.itilifesciences.com
About ReactivLab Limited
ReactivLab is a spin out company from the laboratory of Prof David Eckersall of University of Glasgow Vet School. ReactivLab specialises in acute phase protein (APP's) testing, which have been shown to be valuable diagnostic and prognostic markers for infections, inflammation, neoplasia and signs of trauma and also enable detection of sub clinical signs of illness, allowing early clinical intervention.
For more information about ReactivLab please visit http://www.reactivlab.com/
About Moredun Research Institute
Moredun Research Institute conducts internationally recognised research on the infectious diseases of livestock and is committed to improving animal welfare, ensuring food safety, reducing adverse impacts on the environment, and to contribute to sustainable communities through economic development across Scotland and beyond.
Moredun has an extensive pipeline of opportunities based on their expertise in bacteriology, parasitology and virology and it’s research focuses on understanding the interaction of the disease pathogen with the host species, in identifying new targets for improved diagnostic tests and in development of novel vaccines for many diseases.
For more information about the work of Moredun please visit http://www.moredun.ac.uk/
About Stirling Medical Innovations Limited
By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Stirling Medical Innovations Limited, and its parent company Inverness Medical Innovations, enable individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life. Inverness’ global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, drugs of abuse and women’s health. SMI is located on the Stirling University Innovation Park.
For more information about Stirling Medical Innovations, please visit http://www.stirlingmedical.com/. Inverness is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts USA.
For more information about Inverness Medical Innovations, please visit http://www.invernessmedical.com/.