Oct. 2, 2007 -- Sporian Microsystems Inc. has been funded by the NIH to develop a rapid, handheld detection system for bacterial contamination. Bacterial contamination is a costly and dangerous problem of great concern in the healthcare industry. The estimated incidence of nosocomial infections alone is more than 2 million cases per year, resulting in an added health care expenditure in excess of $2 billion. Bacterial contamination is also a great concern in many non-medicine related industries, including: municipal water treatment, food and agricultural processing, industrial monitoring, scientific, defense, and homeland security.
Sporian Microsystems is currently developing a fast, highly sensitive, bio-sensing technology, based on molecular detection elements (MDE's) and a patent pending optical sensing architecture. The proposed technology could be broadly adapted to serve as a low cost, efficient, reliable replacement for slow cell culture tests currently used in the clinical environments. In addition to reducing the incidence/risks of infection, the technology also has the potential to reduce health care costs by streamlining the testing process and by reducing the number of false positives/negatives associated with current testing methods.
The target product forms for this biomarker detection technology is as a simple handheld, similar in size and function to a PDA, utilizing very low cost disposable detection elements. Small samples (body fluids, water, etc.) would be added to the disposable detector, plugged into the handheld, and the measurement initiated and recorded. According to Dr. Yvette Bren Mattison, "This powerful technology can potentially be translated to detect any number of targets or biomarkers and greatly enhance point-of-care diagnostics in both the hospital and non-hospital settings."
Sporian Microsystems Inc. is an aggressive sensors, MEMS, and packaging company. Sporian develops, markets, manufactures and sells a family of novel sensors, sensor-subsystems, multiple sensor-suites, and sensor data-loggers.
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