STAT-Diagnostica & Innovation SL

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

Rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases can make the difference between life and death in hospitals, but the wait for results from standard hospital in-house laboratory tests may take days. STAT-Diagnostica & Innovation SL’s self-contained mini-lab is not only portable and can be administered easily by a nurse, but it also allows for a short, 30-minute turnaround time from taking a patient specimen to identifying one of roughly 50 specific pathogens associated mainly with infectious diseases.

STAT-Diagnostica & Innovation SL

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

Being able to quickly and accurately diagnose an infectious disease can sometimes make the difference between life and death, and at a minimum ensures timely and appropriate treatment. But relying on a standard hospital in-house laboratory for results may take days. To improve on this woeful turnaround, STAT-Diagnostica & Innovation SL has developed a self-contained mini-lab. The DiagCORE analyzer is not only portable and can be administered easily by a nurse, but it also allows for a short, 30-minute turnaround time from taking a patient specimen (e.g, blood, urine, sputum, or bronchoalveolar lavage) to identifying one of roughly 50 specific pathogens associated mainly with infectious diseases, including respiratory conditions, bloodstream diseases such as sepsis, meningitis, and gastrointestinal disorders. A disposable test cartridge contains reagents that are mixed with the patient sample and automate the assays.

Molecular diagnostics represents a worldwide market opportunity of about $10 billion annually, of which the applications being pursued by STAT-Diagnostica total approximately $3 billion. The two founders of STAT-Diagnostica are its CEO, Jordi Carrera, and director of engineering, Rafel Bru. The men first met 10 years ago while working at NTE in Barcelona, which is part of Barcelona-based Werfen Group, a global diagnostics firm focused on critical-care testing. “We thought a similar technology could be developed that would be easier and less expensive to use,” says Carrera, who joined NTE in 2004 as a project manager and eventually became head of biomedical development before leaving the company in 2010. Bru had started at NTE one year before Carrera, in 2003, as a systems engineer and had advanced to project manager by the time he departed in 2008.

Continued...

To read this article in its entirety, purchase now, as a PDF and recieve it immediately via email. Or get it free when you subscribe to Start-Up.

About Start-Up

No publication reviews leading edge companies and technology better than Start-Up. Each issue of Start-Up profiles the most important new product companies, identifies the hottest technology areas, reviews funds flowing into private companies and investment trends, and reports on university tech transfer licensing. Industries covered: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical equipment & devices, and in vitro diagnostics.

Plus:
To find out about more about more about Elsevier Business Intelligence's medical device publications and databases, multi-user access and/or advertising with Medical Devices Today, please contact Kristy Kennedy at (480) 985-9512