Russian-French test strips
Rusnano and the French company Magnisense will organize the production of diagnostic systems in Russia
Rusnano announces the start of an investment in the French company Magnisense SE, a developer of next-generation laboratory biological tests for healthcare, veterinary medicine, the food industry and environmental measurements. Rusnano will invest up to 28.5 million euros in the project with a total volume of 44.3 million euros. The rest of the financing will come from existing and new Magnisense shareholders.
Magnisense was founded in 2004 and has been headquartered in Paris since 2007 and in San Francisco since 2009. Magnisense develops and markets a new generation of magnetic systems for the rapid diagnosis of biomarkers in areas such as medicine, veterinary medicine, food safety and environmental protection. The principle of operation of diagnostic systems is based on a technological breakthrough – the use of magnetic particles as tags. The signal from the labels is not subject to distortion, which provides higher sensitivity and reproducibility of measurements compared to technologies using traditional enzymatic and fluorescent labels.
In Russia, within the framework of the project, the production of advanced diagnostic systems based on the patented Magnisense technology – MIAtek magnetic immunological tests will be created. The object under study – individual target molecules or microorganisms – are selectively recognized by antibodies to which magnetic nanoparticles are attached. Diagnostics of heart attacks, sexually transmitted diseases, quality of vaccination, microbiological contamination of food – in these and other cases, Magnisense technology allows you to combine the accuracy of laboratory testing with the simplicity and compactness of express analyses. The use of magnetic particles as labels makes the method immune to many interferences and provides more sensitive and reproducible measurements than traditional enzymatic and fluorescent diagnostic methods.
Magnisense plans to produce two types of products at the Russian enterprise:
MIAstrip®: test strips for quantitative diagnostics outside laboratory conditions of various pathological conditions - myocardial infarction; bacterial infections, including tetanus; viral infections, including avian influenza; parasitic and fungal infections;
MIAflo®: consumable cartridges for quantitative analysis of heart diseases; bacterial contamination in food, including listeria and salmonella, or in water (for example, legionella); viral, parasitic and fungal infections.
The MIAtek technology developed by Magnisense uses magnetic nanoparticles as tags, rather than fluorescent tags or other optically active compounds, as in traditional methods of analysis (immunofluorescence or enzyme immunoassay). This allows you to examine even colored, opaque and inhomogeneous liquids – for example, blood without pretreatment. High sensitivity and reproducibility of the results is ensured by the fact that the device takes into account the signal from almost every magnetic tag. For such pathological conditions as myocardial infarction, the sensitivity and reliability of MIAtek measurements are several times higher than that of the enzyme immunoassay method.
The Magnisense reader registers various biomarkers – viruses, bacteria, hormones, enzymes, DNA fragments – labeled with superparamagnetic nanoparticles in a MIAstrip or MIAflo cartridge. The results of the analysis are displayed in the smartphone and can be processed on-site or transmitted via a wireless network.
The ability to work with inhomogeneous fluids, such as blood, reduces the time for sample preparation and allows you to get results faster, already 15-20 minutes after taking the material. The measurement does not require special training and can be performed by junior medical personnel or by the patient himself. The prescribed tests can be ready and analyzed by the doctor even before the patient leaves his office.
The reader is a portable and inexpensive device and does not require special working conditions. A private practitioner or a small research group can purchase and use them in almost any office, office or laboratory.
In addition to medical applications, Magnisense develops tests for quality control of food, water and air. The company's patent-protected technologies ensure the accuracy of measurements of biological targets, individually or in combination, even in large volume samples.
According to MIAtek® technology, the analyzed biomarker is marked with superparamagnetic particles, and not with fluorescent or other optically active labels that are used in competing traditional methods. The operation of the Magnisense reader, which registers particles with high accuracy, does not require long and costly sample preparation.
MIAtek technology has the potential to take a leading position in the market of diagnostic tools, replacing the technologies that are widespread today, which were developed at the end of the XX century. Competing methods are more expensive, require more time to prepare samples, and may not comply with new regulatory regulations.
The opening of the Russian Magnisense enterprise with a capacity of 3.5 million test strips per year is planned for 2015. The products are supposed to be sold on the domestic market and exported mainly to Europe, the USA and Japan.
In the future, Magnisense plans to expand production in Russia, focusing on the professional segment of decentralized diagnostics, also known as POC (Point-of-Care) in Russia, Europe, the USA, Japan and China. According to Kalorama Information, a research company specializing in medical and related markets, decentralized diagnostics is becoming the fastest growing segment in the field of healthcare. The global Point-of-Care professional diagnostics market in 2009 amounted to 5.3 billion dollars, in the coming years it is expected to grow at a rate of 6% per year and further increase in growth rates.
"The transfer of this technology provides for the creation of a production facility in Russia together with the research and development center," said Olga Shpichko, Managing Director of Rusnano, "I am sure that the Magnisense project will take its rightful place among the new diagnostic and treatment methods brought to the Russian market with the help of Rusnano."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the Rusnano press center.
07.02.2012