Date: 2011-04-19
Type of information: Grant
Company: Curetis (Germany)
Investors: Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Germany)
Amount: € 0.5 million
Funding type: grant
Planned used: Acute severe infections require rapid and comprehensive diagnostics to support physicians in therapeutic decision making. Thus it is key that clinically relevant pathogens and antibiotic resistances get detected within a few short hours. Curetis AG has developed a product solution that uses molecular methods to detect 17 different bacteria and more than 20 antibiotic resistances within a couple of hours. The system uses a disposable cartridge that integrates the isolation, amplification and specific detection of bacterial DNA. For economic and efficient molecular diagnostic application disposables, plastics is the material of choice. Plastic materials that are employed must allow for complex three-dimensional structures, enabling the actuation and transportation of sample liquids and reagents, and at the same time allow for bio-compatible surfaces. Although it is possible to provide complex structures with them, currently available joining processes do not always allow for bio-compatible surfaces that can be produced economically. Therefore the ZIM grant supports the optimization of bio-compatible joining processes for fluidic systems in an enclosed disposable cartridge that can be reliably and cost effectively mass manufactured. Each of the project partners contributes complementary skills towards this challenging manufacturing issue: Curetis has broad competencies in developing and in the industrial scale up of instruments and disposables for the medical device and diagnostics industry. Polytechnic Schmalkalden contributes with its research facilities for applied plastics technologies in terms of know how on materials selection, processing, analytics and construction. Contexo GmbH has decades of experience in designing and building high-throughput production lines for molecular diagnostics products including the integration of varied separation, joining, filling and sealing processes.
Others: Curetis AG announced that a consortium including Curetis, the Polytechnic Schmalkalden (Germany) and Contexo GmbH (Winterbach, Germany) has been awarded about € 0.5 million for 2011 under the Federal German Central Innovation Program (ZIM). The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology thereby supports the optimization of certain plastics joining processes for mass production of consumables for innovative diagnostics.
Therapeutic area: Infectious diseases
