Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MagElastic (Magneto-elastic technologies for point-of-care diagnostics)
Reporting period: 2018-10-01 to 2020-03-31
One of the major problems that have been clearly exposed in this pandemic is directly related to the diagnosis of the infections and the logistics and the practicality of the existing protocols. On one hand, in many diagnostic procedures the analysis relies on treatments based around the laboratory equipment and use of specialised personal. This significantly increases both, the time and the costs of the procedures. On the other hand, the scientific advances behind the techniques used, make many of them sufficiently simple for applications outside the medical environment (e.g. blood glucose tests). Very often these protocols require blood plasma, which in smaller quantities provide a very quick and efficient way to diagnose deceases directly at the point of care.
The main concept of MagElastic is to provide innovative devices for the healthcare sector, which will significantly improve the process of extracting and processing blood plasma enabling “point-of-care” diagnostics. The ability to reduce the Turn Around Time (TAT) of blood diagnosis has the potential to improve mortality rates, considerably reduce the economic burden to health organisations and aid the reduction in the use of antibiotics. Furthermore, our devices can have a direct impact in secondary care and help overcome barriers in home testing and telemedicine.
In particular, MagElastic aims to introduce a point-of-care sample preparation device that:
• Only requires a finger prick of blood – no phlebotomist required.
• Processes the blood sample on a disposable device within 10 minutes.
• Requires no other resources, consumables or specialist staff.
• Works with existing diagnostic tools currently in use.
• Contributes to wider health challenges such as the reduction in use of antibiotics
As the main result of the project, MagElastic has developed three prototype devices that could be applied with third party platforms working in the POC areas of applications. This includes microfluidic pumping units, microscopic stirrers, and microscopic biocompatible high torque magnets. All three innovations are targeting specific applications identified via engagement with the potential adopters in the POC area. As part of the project, we have formed a spin-out platform ‘MagElastic’, which has followed the necessary steps in commercialising the produced technologies. The commercialising activities included: formulation of the strategic plan of development, identifying the markets of exploitation, creation of the preliminary business plan, obtaining the necessary skills via training and consultations, handling the IP issues and forming the agreements between the partners. At this point the spin-out has all the necessary prerequisites for final incorporation. MagElastic team has been in contact with more than 50 companies operating in various sectors of microfluidic technologies, and identified those who are potentially interested in MagElastic innovations. MagElastic has identified two early stage adopters, with who the team has fully engaged to produce the products based on integration of MagElastic prototypes and those of the third parties. Finally, MagElastic has initiated the work on developing and testing the products.