MBio Diagnostics Announces Key Journal Publication

MBio Diagnostics, Inc. has announced publication of study results in the American Society for Microbiology’s Journal of Clinical Microbiology (Lochhead, MJ, et al, J. Clin. Micro. 2011, 49, 3584-3590).

MBio is developing a point-of-care diagnostic system that delivers a panel of infectious disease results using a single drop of blood.

The peer-reviewed article is titled “Rapid Multiplexed Immunoassay for Simultaneous Serodiagnosis of HIV-1 and Coinfections.”

It was authored by a team of scientists from the company and physicians at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

“We are impressed with performance of the MBio technology and believe it has the potential to address a critical unmet global health need,” said Dr. Robert T. Schooley, M.D., corresponding author and Division Head (Infectious Diseases) and Professor of Medicine at UCSD.

He indicated that at the time of HIV diagnosis, standard-of-care is to test for the opportunistic infections that ultimately lead to AIDS.

But coinfection testing is cost prohibitive and operationally complex in resource-limited settings where disease burden is highest.

“The ability to rapidly test for a panel of coinfections using a finger stick blood sample, while the patient waits, would be an enormous advance,” Dr. Schooley said. “That information immediately alters therapy decisions.”

According to MBio Diagnostics CEO Chris Myatt, the publication is an important milestone for the company.

Dr. Myatt said, “JCM is a high impact journal read by infectious diseases thought-leaders. This publication provides an important objective assessment of our technology’s value.”

He added that having the UCSD co-authors on the paper was also especially gratifying.

“Drs. Schooley and Benson are globally recognized viral disease experts, particularly in the HIV field. Working with the UCSD clinicians ensures that MBio’s development activities are linked to practical, unmet clinical needs.”