CombiMatrix Launches ElectraSense Influenza Surveillance System
Newport Beach, CA - Acacia Research Corporation announced its CombiMatrix group has launched the ElectraSense Influenza Typing System based on CombiMatrix's propriety electrochemical detection technology and its Influenza A Typing Microarray.
CombiMatrix is prepared to make this system available to domestic and international government agencies that are engaged in monitoring influenza and planning for a potential pandemic. Using this system, government agencies can verify, before disseminating potentially alarming information to the public, whether samples contain a highly pathogenic substrain of H5N1 or one of the several non-lethal substrains of H5N1. The system is designed for research use, surveillance and monitoring applications, use for animal studies, and other applications not requiring FDA registration. CombiMatrix will seek FDA approval for this product.
The ElectraSense platform is a simple, compact, and rugged system for microarray analysis. This portable system eliminates the bulk, complexity, delicate lasers, and fluorescent dyes common with existing technologies.
The CombiMatrix Influenza A Typing Microarray can identify all strains of Influenza A, including the pathogenic H5N1 strain that has a roughly 50% mortality. Recent studies by CombiMatrix and others indicate that there are multiple sub-strains of H5N1. Some of these are highly pathogenic, some less so, and each may exhibit different responses to drugs such as Tamiflu(R). CombiMatrix's system can differentiate highly pathogenic from less-lethal flu strains and identify strains that may be resistant to therapy, by tracking mutations and recombination events in the genetic makeup of the virus. The system functions even as new mutations appear in influenza strains, maximizing the chance that, as new strains emerge, they can always be detected. In addition, this system can detect mixed or multiple infections of influenza of a single bird or human.
"ElectraSense is an inexpensive yet powerful system for detection and analysis of genomic and proteomic materials on CombiMatrix's CustomArray(TM). We believe the simplicity of the ElectraSense reader and the power of our Influenza microarray make this system well suited for monitoring influenza outbreaks in the field," said Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of CombiMatrix. "The capabilities of this system are expandable to other pathogens, and we expect to broaden the applications of this product."
SOURCE: Acacia Research Corporation