ProtonDx Awarded £365,000 Defra and Innovate UK Grant to Develop Porcine Lung Disease Diagnostic
Summary
Grant to develop automated, rapid point-of-need diagnostic to provide a sustainable and resilient revolution in detection and diagnosis of Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex (PRDC) Working in collaboration with Imperial College, farmers and industry experts to help address the global issue of rising antibiotic resistanceLONDON, UK, September 28, 2022 / B3C newswire / -- ProtonDx Ltd, an Imperial College health technology spin-out company delivering cost-effective, ultra-rapid, accurate and portable molecular testing, has been awarded a \xa3365,000 grant from Defras Farming Innovation Programme and UKRIs Transforming Food Production Challenge (Innovate UK) to develop rapid, accurate, point-of-care tests for porcine lung diseases, in collaboration with Imperial College London.Porcine lung infections, including Porcine Respiratory Disease Complex (PRDC), are caused by bacteria, viruses, or a combination of both. Our multidisciplinary team are thrilled to have the opportunity to co-create an automated diagnostic solution that will be able to test the eight major bacterial and viral pathogens seen in PRDC, at once. Our goal is to create an easy-to-use, rapid and affordable diagnostic tool that provides a sustainable and resilient revolution in detection and diagnosis of porcine lung diseases on farms worldwide.Working closely with livestock farmers, the UKs Animal Plant Health Agency and industry experts, the development team at ProtonDx will be using the automated diagnostic platform to enable the detection of major porcine bacterial and viral lung pathogens. The grant is part of \xa38 million UK-based fund aimed at assessing new farming concepts announced 9 June 2022 as part of Defras Farming Innovation Programme.About ProtonDxProtonDx Ltd was founded in 2020 by Professor Pantelis Georgiou (CEO), Assistant Professor Jesus Rodriguez-Manzano (CSO), and Dr Nicolas Moser (CTO), of Imperial College London to deliver ultra-rapid, extremely precise, molecular testing for everyone at the point-of-need to facilitate identification of infectious pathogens worldwide.Its core technology builds on a decade of innovative research in diagnostics and collaboration between engineering, medicine and molecular biology carried out at Imperial College London by a dedicated multidisciplinary team. It helps businesses grow through the development and commercialisation of new products, processes, and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive, and easy to navigate.