10 August 2017 - - US-based molecular diagnostics company Akonni Biosystems has received a Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, the company said.
The award will help Akonni accelerate the advancement of its proprietary technologies to address the critically unmet need for simple, effective, and affordable tools to diagnose lower respiratory diseases in children.
Conventional diagnostic techniques require long turnaround times, lack the required sensitivity, and have limited ability to test for a variety of different respiratory pathogens simultaneously. Recently developed multiplexed molecular diagnostic respiratory panels offer the potential to address these issues.
Akonni Biosystems has been issued 21 US and 36 international patents primarily covering sample preparation, microfluidic devices, bioinstrumentation, and integrated systems.
Commercial products in the company's near-term pipeline include rapid sample preparation technologies for nucleic acid extraction, and multiplex panel assays for detecting clinically relevant genotypes for pharmacogenomics, human chronic diseases, and genotypes for infectious diseases.