Collaboration with Auburn University
GeneCapture Announces Agricultural Collaboration with Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.
May 2, 2023
HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA – GeneCapture, developer of a novel point-of-care pathogen diagnostic platform technology, announced that it has received a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) match grant award from Innovate Alabama to advance its work currently underway with the Defense Health Agency. The current SBIR effort is to develop a portable rapid diagnostic for human infection and antibiotic susceptibility testing for military personnel. The matching grant of $100,000 will enable animal pathogens to be added to the test panel.
Pathogens that infect animals are often not diagnosed until it is too late to prevent contagion, which may lead to food recalls or animal deaths. If the infection and antibiotic susceptibility can be determined on the farm before animal transportation, the health of the animals can often be maintained.
“GeneCapture’s system identifies the molecular sequence of the pathogen using a rapid RNA-based signature match. Most of GeneCapture’s development has focused on human health for civilian and military populations. However, adding probes for animal pathogens is a simple platform extension,” stated Paula Millirons, Chief Scientist at GeneCapture.
The collaboration with Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine will speed up testing and field applications important to the State and the Country. The team expects to have results from animal samples by summer 2023. The work will be performed at GeneCapture’s lab on the HudsonAlpha campus.
Dr. Xu Wang, Associate Professor of Comparative Genomics in Animal Health and Disease from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, remarked, “Rapid on-site pathogen detection will become an important tool to enhance animal production, health, welfare, and address agricultural and food security issues. We look forward to exploring GeneCapture’s novel platform as a part of this Innovate Alabama award.”
This collaboration and grant award comes on the heels of GeneCapture winning the prestigious Nunn-Perry Award from the Department of Defense, recognizing the company’s momentum as it prepares for the next commercialization stage. GeneCapture, which has received over $4 million from the Department of Defense, is partnered with the Defense Health Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and GeneCapture’s Chief Scientist Paula Millirons displays pathogen detector model for remote testing of animal pathogens other agencies as it seeks to develop its point of care pathogen diagnostic platform for the warfighter, the Government, and commercial applications.
“Innovate Alabama is helping innovators grow roots within the state by providing resources, like the Innovate Alabama Supplemental Grant Program, to assist business leaders looking for support in bringing their products to market,” said Cynthia Crutchfield, CEO of Innovate Alabama.
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GeneCapture’s mission is to bring ‘infection detection’ out of the lab and directly to the patient, whether at a doctor’s office, an airport, a cruise ship, a farm, or a battlefield. Our rapid infection detection and antibiotic susceptibility platforms are designed for point-of-care medicine. GeneCapture, Inc. is an associate company on the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology campus in Huntsville, Alabama, a leading research institute in genetics and genomics.
Learn more about GeneCapture at www.genecapture.com or contact the company through their website.
See the full press release here.