Project description
Nanotechnology diagnostics made simple
Diagnostic assays are the cornerstone of healthcare decisions made today and are essential for effective treatment. Diagnostic tools must exhibit high-throughput analytical capacity and high data quality and consume small sample volume. Nanotechnology offers the ability to further advance molecular diagnostics at the point of care. To address this need, the EU-funded Nano4 project has developed NANO4, a fast nano-based diagnostic technology that uses nanoprobes to detect DNA and RNA molecules. The result is visible through a colour change, rendering the device extremely user-friendly and facilitating quick decision-making. The idea is to initially implement NANO4 for the diagnosis of tuberculosis and leukaemia, which constitute global medical problems.
Objective
There is a need for cost-effective molecular point of care diagnostic tools to provide better healthcare to patients and better agility to our healthcare system. And what about going one step further by extending the limits of molecular diagnostics to the nano-scale?
The market needs a rapid and definitive answer at entry level. Needs a diagnostic that is capable of screen directly and simply hundreds of samples with low infrastructure and low-grade people, that can rely on existing peripheral infrastructure like peripheral hospital and microscopy centres.
We have developed the nano-technology-based solution NANO4. NANO4 is a fast and user-friendly nano-based diagnostic technology suitable for use at the Point of Need. NANO4 represents a highly specific and sensitive nanotechnology for in vitro molecular diagnostics. It uses gold nano-probes to recognize the complementary DNA/RNA strand and yield a colour output that allows for quick decision making.
Molecular diagnosis is a multi-million Euro market and making use of our SME Instrument Phase 1 Feasibility Study, we defined our go-to-market roadmap for our first disruptive products: NANO4 TB for Tuberculosis, and NANO4 CML for Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, including industrial scale-up and CE mark.
We have already established partnerships with distributors in Europe and Brazil, and our technology has been referenced by FIND as a promising new solution for TB diagnosis. We have also established a connection with the World Health Organization, in order to obtain an endorsement as soon as we receive the CE mark.
NANO4 was founded in end 2015, and we have raised €200.000 from Business Angels and have already begun our operations to take our products to the market, expecting a Series A at the end of 2018.
With the successful conclusion of this project, NANO4 will become one of the few companies in Europe to possess nanotechnology capacities at industrial scale, focused on the life sciences sector.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcolors
- engineering and technologynanotechnology
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepneumologytuberculosis
- engineering and technologymedical engineeringmedical laboratory technologydiagnostic technologies
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologyleukemia
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
2710-142 Sintra
Portugal
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.