Collaboration Aims To Develop Instrument-free Diagnostic Tests
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
Sherlock Biosciences (“Sherlock”), an engineering biology company specializing in improving diagnostic testing, and Mologic, a developer of lateral flow and rapid diagnostic technologies, have announced a new collaboration that aims to advance molecular diagnostic testing in low-resource settings and within the home.
The work is being facilitated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through an expansion of an existing grant to Mologic. The companies will combine Sherlock’s core synthetic biology platform with Mologic’s advanced lateral flow expertise to develop simple, sophisticated molecular diagnostics for use at the point of need.
Supporting endeavors to create a new field of molecular diagnostics and facilitate more targeted therapies, the funding from the Gates Foundation will bolster efforts to leverage Sherlock’s synthetic biology-based INSPECTR™ platform and Mologic’s core immunoassay platforms—ELTABA for enzyme activity detection, and CARD, the high sensitivity lateral flow technology developed at Mologic’s Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics. This work aims to advance affordable, universal detection platforms that will detect DNA or RNA targets in virtually any decentralized site, including low-resource settings and home-based testing. Mologic established its CARD platform with prior funding and support from the Gates Foundation.
“Our INSPECTR platform was designed to be the very first low-cost, rapid, instrument-free molecular diagnostic system to truly address diagnostic needs where solutions do not exist today, especially in low-resource and home settings,” said Rahul K. Dhanda, Sherlock’s Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. “This program will enable us to build on the power of our INSPECTR platform to create diagnostic tools that provide accurate and affordable results in virtually any setting, while working with Mologic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop lateral flow technology to improve global health.”
