Partners involved in Sapher have performed their tasks in accordance with the Grant Agreement until (approximately) April 2023. Since them the performance of Lumensia was diminishing due to their financial situation, which was derived from the acquisition procedure of their mother company (DAS Photonics) by a big company. In the view of the coordinator, the project was being nicely executed until an unexpected situation “strangled” Lumensia financially. Since this kind of project (FTTI) was aimed at helping LUME to bring their platform to the market, it made no sense to continuing the project unless Lumensia was replaced by the company acquiring DAS Photonics, which could not be achieved. Therefore, we proceeded to the project termination.
WP1. The main activities during this period were the supervision of periodic online meetings and the termination of the project due to Lumensia financial situation.
WP2. the “Practical Guidance on the Application of Food Allergen Quantitative Risk Assessment” was published, ending task T2.3.
WP3. UPV-NTC acquired mass-production fabrication equipment improving results: a wafer can be manufactured within 2 days with a yield of 95% (previous conditions: 1 week and 70%). A first batch of 2000 assemblies were fabricated in M24, and a second batch of 2000 assemblies manufactured by mould injection. At M24, 2000 PICs (from UPV-NTC) and 2000 microfluidics cartridges (from ChipShop) were delivered to Lumensia facilities and assembled. 1000 units were used with possible customers (Spanish food companies), while the other 1000 units were internally used for method development. UPV-NTC fabricated 2000 more PICs.
WP4. Lumensia prepared biosensors against Gluten, Milk proteins, Egg proteins by means of INGE provided antibodies and biosensors against Soya proteins, Peanut proteins and Celery proteins employing commercial antibodies. INGE has also developed monoclonal antibodies for mustard and almond. LUME developed tools and methodologies to implement the functionalization process for industrial batches.
WP5. Tasks T5.1 T5.2 T5.3 and T5.4 were finished. Lumensia was working on the selection of feasible matrices to include in the certification process as well as in the adaptation of the internal procedures to the new AOAC requirements. Remarkably, Lumensia achieved the CE mark external certification.
WP6. Task T6.1 was finished by DTU, defining the needed specifics of the Sapher capabilities, dates for demos fixed and protocols for its demonstration. Tasks T6.2 T6.3 T6.4 and T6.5 have not been implemented due to the situation with Lumensia.
WP7. Communication and promotion materials, including newsletters, website and intranet, were created. In task T7.2 an online demonstration of the technology was done to Eurofins Food Testing UK. LUME updated the data management plan at M24.
WP8. Lumensia defined the commercial interest per consortium members, registered the Sapher trademark and logo, and visited several food companies to gather assessment needs. As part of de Business Plan elaboration task, the in-deep study of the investment needs to be raised in the upscaling of the SAPHER production was done. Lumensia contacted and visited stakeholders in the food.
WP9. During the period reported, INGE used experimental animals for the production of fish, almond and mustard antibodies. All of them hold correspondent authorizations and seals of approvement, always considering the principle of 3R.
