29 May 2020 - - US-based diagnostics company Tangen Biosciences, Inc. and real-time data reporting LIMS software provider LabWare, Inc. have agreed to enter into an exclusive partnership whereby LabWare will distribute Tangen's GeneSpark device as part of the LabWare's Portable Disease Surveillance Lab kit in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies said.

LabWare's kit includes a mobile hot spot and a tablet computer connected to a cloud-based Laboratory Information Management System software portal to capture patient demographic and clinical information, document field collection of respiratory swabs for COVID-19 testing, accession the sample, and rapidly disseminate this data to public health agencies.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, LabWare designed the Portable Disease Surveillance Lab kit to fit all the necessary components in a suitcase to enable patient registration and testing in field locations such as drive-up testing or assisted living facilities.

Patient demographics and triage details will be captured on the tablet computer, and the information will be transferred to the cloud.

With the addition of the Tangen testing system, high priority patient specimens will be tested immediately with Tangen's GeneSpark device, and both the patient details and test results will be transferred electronically through LabWare's cloud-based LIMS to public health labs and the CDC in less than 30 minutes.

The fast turnaround time should greatly improve surveillance programmes.

Beyond COVID-19, Tangen is making a Flu/COVID-19 Panel that can detect Flu A, Flu B and COVID-19 simultaneously from one patient sample in a single processing run, so that patients with flu-like symptoms will know whether they have flu or COVID-19 infection or none of them.

Tangen expects to continue its partnership with LabWare to include this multi-target testing.

The combination of Tangen's rapid, highly sensitive and point-of-care molecular diagnostics and LabWare's real-time data reporting LIMS software should enable public health systems to react quickly in terms of quarantine guidelines, patient tracing, hotspot monitoring, and infection surveillance.

Tangen's COVID-19 programme has been funded in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services: Office of the Assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract No. 75A50120C00085.

Tangen Biosciences, Inc. was founded in 2013 and is located in Branford, Connecticut. The company developed the TangenDx platform for fast and accurate detection of targeted DNAs and RNAs directly from specimens by using rotary rapid isothermal nucleic acid detection.

The Tangen system consists of the TangenDx disc and the GeneSpark instrument, an automated amplification device.

The TangenDx platform, which does not require laboratory facilities, is expected to deliver faster, simpler, more sensitive detection at a lower cost than other commercial technologies.

Current tests in development include COVID-19, Candida auris, sepsis causing bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes, and a Candida blood panel.

The TangenDx platform is on track for infectious disease clinical studies.

LabWare is recognised as a leader of Laboratory Information Management Systems and instrument integration software products.

The company's Enterprise Laboratory Platform combines the award-winning LabWare LIMS and LabWare ELN, a comprehensive and fully integrated Electronic Laboratory Notebook application, which enables companies to optimise compliance, improve quality, increase productivity, and reduce costs.

LabWare Mobile is the newest addition to this platform, allowing users to interact with LabWare data on a mobile device using the device's native capabilities.

Founded in 1988, LabWare is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware with offices located throughout the world to support customer installations in over 100 countries.